Kidnapping the Sandy Claws
by Trilliumwoods
Summary: Lock, Shock and Barrel are dispatched by Jack Skellington to capture the ruler of a mysterious place called Christmas Town. It takes them over 30 days to do it - what were they getting up to that whole time? Following their mission and filling in the blanks between what we see on screen. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

It was another beautiful morning - in that dreary, desaturated, decayed, Halloween Town kind of way. Just beyond the southern graveyard and Spiral Hill stood a lone structure: a treehouse built haphazardly over an enormous pit. It was rather isolated and far from town, but had it been closer the townsfolk would have heard similar sounds at various times every day: the bickering, shouting and laughing of three children, as well as the occasional explosion. On this particular morning there was a lot of shouting going on. Lock had lost at their game of poker yet again, so it was his turn to act as the moving target for Shock and Barrel to practice throwing darts at - again. But just like every other time this had happened, before long it had turned into a dart-throwing free-for-all until one of them (usually Barrel) finally gave up, which then made it less embarrassing for the other two to give up, too. Now all three of them sat at opposite corners of the living room, pulling out darts and licking their wounds.

"Why do you always start throwing them back? You're the one who lost." Barrel grumbled as he pulled a dart out of the back of his leg. Fortunately it hadn't punctured too deep, thanks to the thick fabric of his costume.

"You think I'm stupid enough to just stand around like a dummy while you two throw darts at me?" Lock said, removing a dart from his foot. Luckily for him it had stuck into the curly point of his shoe and missed his toes this time.

"That's the rule!" huffed Shock, wincing a bit as she slowly extracted a dart from her upper arm. She had already removed several from her hat already. "And besides, you're not supposed to just stand there, you're supposed to run. If you don't like it, then learn how to play better!"

"I play poker fine, it's just that you two cheat!" fumed Lock, although that was a lie and he knew it, as did the others.

Shock looked at him in disgust. "No, we don't cheat, you're just terrible! You always think your cards are better than they are and you're awful at bluffing! You need to learn how to do a good poker face, like Barrel!"

"Barrel doesn't have a good poker face, he just grins like an idiot the whole time, like always!"

"Maybe so, but it works! You don't see him getting darts thrown at him every other week!"

"Guys, what should we do now?" interjected Barrel. He was tired of their bickering. Sometimes it was really fun to watch Lock and Shock fight, especially when there was physical violence involved, but other times it was just boring. They had already gotten into it at least three times that day and it wasn't even lunchtime yet. The trio had already eaten breakfast, drawn some more graffiti on the wall and made their daily offering to Oogie Boogie: as many bugs as they could catch, and this time they had even managed to trap a crow and send it down the chute, so he was sure to be extra pleased with them today.

"Why don't we go strand Mr.-Excellent-Poker-Face over there up on the roof?" pouted Lock, still sore about being called out on the fact that he wasn't the best at something. Barrel stuck out his tongue, but only after Lock wasn't looking at him anymore.

"Don't blame him because you stink at poker." said Shock, finally pulling the last dart out of her dress. The extra fabric of her costume made her the easiest target, although at least that meant that the darts usually hit her clothing instead of her body. Lock was trying to think of something clever to say when there was a sharp knocking at the window and then a loud _'caw'_. A raven was sitting on the windowsill and tapping its beak against the glass, clearly trying to get their attention.

"What's that crazy bird doing here?" puzzled Lock. Any animal with any sense knew to avoid coming near their treehouse. Getting too close was a surefire way to get hit with a slingshot, caught in a net, sedated with poisoned bait or otherwise trapped and sent down the chute to Oogie Boogie, or else just tormented by the children for the sake of their own amusement.

Barrel rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Ooh, let's catch it and give it to Oogie Boogie! A crow and a raven in one day? We'll be on his good list for sure!"

"Hang on, it's got something tied to its leg…" said Shock, walking over to open the window.

"Let's give whatever it is to Oogie, too!" Lock chimed in.

Shock gave him an annoyed look. "Not until we know what it is, bat-brain!"

It was a note written on very fancy-looking stationary. Shock untied it from the raven and it immediately took flight once again, clearly smart enough to know that this wasn't a good place to stick around. She opened up the envelope and the boys crowded around her. They almost never got mail, so it was a truly momentous occasion.

"What does it say?" said Barrel, hopping up and down with excitement.

"Yeah, what is it?" Lock added, nearly pushing Shock over in his eagerness to see the note.

Shock cleared her throat and began to read, feeling quite important and superior to the boys. She was the only one of them who knew how to read yet, although Barrel was trying to learn. Lock said he thought reading was a waste of time, but clearly he wouldn't have thought that during a moment like this. Shock personally suspected that he was just too dumb to read. "It says, _'To Lock, Shock and Barrel, Halloween's finest trick-or-treaters,'_ " she began, and all three children swelled with pride to be addressed this way. _"'My dear Sirs and Madam, your presence is requested at your earliest convenience in the Town Hall. There is an urgent matter of business that needs attending to, and to which your talents and skills are uniquely suited. There is no need to wait in line when you arrive, please come speak with me immediately as your mission is a top priority. Yours very sincerely, Jack Skellington.'_ "

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Barrel. There were an awful lot of big words in there.

"It means Jack wants to see us right away because he has an important job for us to do!" said Shock excitedly.

"Top priority!" exclaimed Lock, and they all grinned. Besides causing mischief and havoc, nothing felt better than being important. Surely a top priority mission - and coming from the Pumpkin King himself! - would bring with it lots of attention and a great reward. Usually they took their orders from Oogie Boogie, but really they would work for anyone as long as a reward was involved, even if that reward was just being considered important and being the center of attention for a while. They were children, after all, and any praise was welcome praise, no matter who it came from.

"And we don't have to wait in line!" said Barrel - he'd understood that part - and the others agreed that was definitely a bonus. Few things were worse than being expected to wait for their turn. Their earlier quarrel was completely forgotten as they immediately ran to grab their masks and slingshots before jumping into the elevator cage and descending through the trap door, bubbling with excitement and fully prepared to run all the way to town to see what was going on. They hurried across the rickety bridge and up the hillside trail in the direction of the main town, congratulating themselves all the way at being a _'top priority'_ , for that rarely ever happened. Once they reached town they were given somewhat of a wide berth and cold reception by the other residents, as most of the townsfolk found the trio annoying at best and downright infuriating at worst. Nobody wanted to be on the receiving end of one of their childish pranks but the trio didn't mind their reputation one bit. What kind of trick-or-treaters would they be if they didn't play plenty of tricks? They went straight to the Town Hall and saw a great line of people in front of Jack and the Mayor, and once again the children were glad they weren't expected to wait in line - though if they had been they would have just tried to cut in at the front anyway. Jack and the Mayor hadn't noticed them yet, too busy talking with Dr. Finkelstein so Lock whispered:

"Let's hit that stupid Mayor in the face!" He grinned wickedly and pulled a rock out of his pocket to load into his slingshot. Shock and Barrel snickered quietly and followed suite, putting rocks and pieces of bone into their own slingshots. "Ready… aim… fire!" Lock whispered again, and they let them loose - their aim was true and the Mayor's yelps of surprise and pain were highly satisfying, then they scurried up the ramp onto the stage with Lock leading the way.

"What are YOU doing here?" the Mayor said, his head quickly swiveling to show his dislike of the children and his alarm at their presence. Clearly Jack had not let him know that they were coming.

"Jack sent for us!" Lock said proudly.

"Specifically!" added Shock, coming up to stand beside him.

"By name!" piped up Barrel, squeezing his way into the middle. All three children repeated their names, as if to bring the point home to the Mayor that they were indeed welcome for once. Jack at least seemed happy to see them and once again addressed them as _'Halloween's finest trick-or-treaters'_ before kneeling down to get as close to their level as his tall, spindly frame would allow.

"The job I have for you is top secret," he said, "It requires craft, cunning, mischief!" It was really quite remarkable how complimentary Jack was being towards them considering how often he had scolded and disciplined them in the past, so much so that Shock felt compelled to make a joke about it.

"And we thought you didn't like us, Jack." she said in as sugary-sweet a tone as she was capable of - which is to say not very sweet at all - and pulled her littlest cohort into an overly-sappy hug. The three of them giggled at that, but Jack ignored them and continued:

"Absolutely no one is to know about it, not a soul! Now, listen carefully." He pulled them in for a close huddle and whispered, "You are to go through the east forest and stay along the main trail for quite some time until you reach a clearing surrounded by a circle of six trees. On these trees will be carved, colored doors. I want you to go through the bright green door that is somewhat triangular or cone-shaped, with several pointed edges and many bright, colorful little items all over it." Jack hoped that description would be enough for the children to remember, trying to keep it simple and basic, but also because he honestly had not given the other doors much notice and didn't know how to describe the Christmas Town door in relation to the other five doors. "There will be a long drop but you will safely land on soft, white, fluffy ground in a very cold and magical place with little houses and many-colored lights. It is called Christmas Town and you are to capture the king of this land and bring him to me. His name is Sandy Claws, he is large and red with some white, and lives in the biggest house there. The other houses belong to his little helpers, whom you are to avoid - do NOT pull any tricks on anyone while you are there, simply capture Sandy Claws and bring him here to me, _alive_. Once you've caught him, you simply return home through the jack-o-lantern door. Understood?" The children nodded and Lock gestured to the others and started to head off, eager to begin such a fun-sounding adventure but Jack grasped him by the tail and pulled him back. "And one more thing," he said very sternly, picking up the little devil to look him straight in the eyes - for he knew that out of the trio Lock was the most likely to disobey - "Leave that no-account Oogie Boogie OUT of this!"

He put Lock back down and Barrel stepped forward. "Whatever you say, Jack."

"Of course, Jack." added Shock, again in her most sugary-sweet voice.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Jack." finished Lock, and they couldn't contain their evil, excited laughter because they knew without having to look that all three of them were following their standard team protocol whenever they were told to promise something: crossing their fingers behind their backs just in case whatever they promised needed breaking later on - which it almost always did.

They hurried back home to their treehouse, chattering excitedly and singing a little song as they formulated all sorts of devious plots for capturing their prey. Lock's ideas went off the rails into the absurdly-violent like they always did, and Shock had to rein his imagination back in until they settled upon a more practical tactic - one that wasn't likely to blow Sandy Claws to smithereens. They collected several items that they thought might be useful in their quest: an axe, a bear trap, a spear and a spiked mace, rope, a box full of scorpions, a ball-and-chain, a firecracker and their large black bag, inside of which they planned to stuff Sandy Claws once they caught him. They threw all of this into their semi-sentient, walking claw-footed bathtub that was their primary means of transportation over long distances, since Jack had said that this would be a fairly long journey. Plus, they didn't want to have to drag Sandy Claws all the way home by hand. Finally feeling prepared, they hopped into the tub themselves, donned their masks, and the tub lumbered out of the back door and down the great, gnarled tree and trundled off into the woods as fast as it could go.

 ****Author Note** Shout-out to the lovely greeneyes00 for all the inspiration and giving me the courage to attempt to write these little guys as the actual children that they are in the film. I brazenly borrowed her idea about them playing poker, because it was just too perfect. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

The dead forest was mostly quiet save for the occasional squawk of ravens and vultures, and the excited chattering of the three little trick-or-treaters as they rode along the trail. After walking through the forest for quite a long time their chattering died down and Shock started to worry that they weren't on the right track. Jack had told them it would be a long trip, but it was really taking much longer than she had expected. "Are you sure this is the right way?" she asked, peering up at the orange sun to try and calculate if they were at least still headed roughly in the correct direction.

"Of course." said Lock without hesitation, and Shock wondered how he could always be so sure of himself when half the time he didn't even pay attention to anything. Barrel was hanging his arms over the side of the tub, feeling bored.

"Are we there yet?" he mumbled.

"Tell you what, I'll punch you in the head when we get there, that way you'll know for sure." muttered Shock, tired of Barrel's whining. He ignored her and let out a loud sigh, then slid all the way back down to the bottom of the tub and stared up at the scraggly branches overhead. It felt like hours had passed and even Lock's confidence began to waver a little, when finally they reached a clearing that matched the description they were given: a circle of six trees all facing one other, each with a large painted door carved into the trunk. Barrel flipped the faucet handle to _'off'_ , which brought the tub to a halt in the middle of the clearing.

"See, I told you we were going the right way!" Lock said in an arrogant tone as he hopped out of the tub and took his mask off to get a better look at the doors and the little items stacked beneath each one. Barrel and Shock followed him out of the tub - Shock rolling her eyes as she went - and they all three looked around for the door they were instructed to go through.

"This is weird," said Shock. "How come we never found this place before?"

Lock shrugged. "Well, it's pretty far out here, why would we ever go this far into the woods? It's boring out here, there's nothing to do."

"That's true." she conceded. The three of them weren't truly happy unless there was some trouble they could participate in, and there weren't a lot of pranks you could pull or even observe in the middle of a dead forest.

"Which one is it again?" asked Barrel, his mind going blank as he was confronted with all these strange doors. There were no evergreen trees in Halloween Town - only dead, leafless ones or the kind with large, crispy orange, red and brown autumn leaves - so for Jack to call it a tree was a useless description to children who had never seen one before.

"Jack said it was bright colors with lots of little colored bits all over it." said Lock, and the tree with a large, mostly white, pink and blue oval door caught his attention. It had little blue speckles and big yellow spots, a yellow sort of triangle pattern running through the center, and pink and white circles at the bottom. It certainly looked bright and fancy to him and he felt sure it was the right one so he walked over to stand by it.

"He also said it was kind of triangle-shaped with jagged edges, remember?" said Shock, scanning around the circle for a door that fit that description. "I think it's this one." She pointed to a mostly green door covered in shiny little baubles with a yellow star at the top.

"I don't remember him saying anything about triangle shapes or jagged edges." argued Lock, determined that his door was the right door. "And besides, that one's not all that bright, it's just boring old green."

"Yeah, but it's got more sparkly bits on it!" Shock argued back, though she was starting to doubt herself. Jack _had_ said jagged edges, hadn't he? Or did she just make that up because of all the talk about claws?

"He didn't say _'sparkly'_ bits, he just said colored." Lock insisted, crossing his arms defiantly.

Shock wasn't completely convinced that he was right, but she also wasn't super-sure of her choice, either. She turned to Barrel, who was standing in the dead-center of the clearing, looking at all the other doors. "Barrel, what do you think? You have to break the tie."

"I like this one," he said, pointing to the door carved like a big, red and white firecracker.

Shock gave him an exasperated look. "I didn't ask which one you liked, I asked which one you thought is the right one. If it was a firecracker door Jack would have just said that, idiot."

"Oh." Barrel looked from Lock's door to Shock's, and then back to Lock's again. He really didn't have any idea which one to choose, they both looked equally ugly to him and he couldn't remember much of how Jack had described them anymore. Eventually he decided to go with Lock's choice - not because he necessarily thought it was correct, but just because Lock tended to punch harder than Shock did. Shock tended to say much, _much_ meaner things than Lock, but given the choice Barrel preferred words over fists. "I think that one's right." he said, pointing at the white, pink, blue and yellow oval, and a self-satisfied smirk spread across Lock's face.

"You heard him, you're outnumbered." he taunted, and Shock shot Barrel a dirty look before walking over to join Lock beside the chosen door. There wasn't much she could do about being outvoted. Besides, this door definitely did look fancy and very different from anything in Halloween Town, and Jack had been going on and on about how different Christmas Town was… so it seemed like an acceptable choice even though it wasn't her first pick.

"Alright," said Shock as she reached for the doorknob, "Remember what Jack said: he's big and red, and he probably has claws, too, with a name like _'Sandy Claws'_. And he's the king of Christmas Town so he shouldn't be too difficult to find."

Barrel looked a little unsure now that the moment of truth had arrived. "What if this Sandy Claws is really big and really scary? What if we can't catch him?"

"Don't be such a baby," sneered Lock. "He can't be any bigger or scarier than Jack or Oogie Boogie!" Deep down he was a bit nervous, too, but he would never, _ever_ let his cohorts see it. Making mischief in Halloween Town was one thing, but executing a kidnapping in a foreign land was another thing entirely - and kidnapping the king of that land, no less! Still, it made all of them proud that Jack himself had entrusted this crucial task to them, so they had to give it their best try. Plus, it was more fun and exciting than it was frightening, so it was too good an opportunity to refuse.

"Can it, morons!" hissed Shock, then she turned the shiny, golden doorknob and ever-so-slowly pulled the door open a crack. Their three little faces peered cautiously inside, but all they could see was darkness so Shock opened the door all the way.

"Now what?" asked Lock.

"Well, Jack said that there would be a long drop, but that we would land on fluffy white stuff and we'd be alright." Shock answered.

"Let's throw Barrel in first, just to test it." Lock said.

"Hey!" Barrel protested, backing a few steps away from the door.

Shock rolled her eyes at Lock, "What, are you scared or something? You big scaredy-cat." Lock's face started to turn a little red and he was about to argue when Shock cut him off. "We all go down together, in the tub. That way it doesn't come down after us and squish us."

"Sounds good to me!" said Barrel, and he hopped back inside the tub and clutched onto both sides as hard as he could. Shock hopped in too, and Lock begrudgingly crawled in after her, muttering under his breath:

"I'm not scared, you're just stupid…."

"Alright, ready?" said Shock, ignoring Lock and putting on her mask.

"Ready!" Lock and Barrel answered in unison, also donning their masks and hanging on tight to the sides of the tub as Shock flipped the faucet handle and the tub lurched forward, stepped over the lip of the door and fell down into the darkness.

It was indeed a long fall, but it was also completely thrilling and soon their shrieks of terror turned into shrieks of laughter as they spiraled downwards towards a faint, blue-white light below. Then suddenly they landed - quite gently, just as Jack had promised, but something wasn't quite right. The ground wasn't all white and fluffy but rather mostly green with some white and pink fluffs scattered in little patches throughout the green. It also wasn't cold like Jack had said, but rather balmy and pleasant - but the children were too distracted to really notice these little discrepancies. Jack had tried to prepare them for the unfamiliar sights they would see in this strange world, but it was still quite startling and they looked around in disbelief for a few moments. Everything seemed to be pastel blues, greens, pinks and yellows, with gently rolling hills with flowering shrubs all over them, as well as tall trees - but they didn't look much like the trees in Halloween Town. These trees had smooth, light colored bark, bright green leaves and clusters of small, white buds. The trio had landed right in the middle of a ring of them with doors just like the one they had gone through, and they saw one with a jack-o-lantern door which they had been instructed was their way back home. The sky was light blue with fluffy white clouds, and plump little birds twittered cheerfully as they flew from branch to branch. The children found it all thoroughly repulsive.

"Whoa… what is that?" said Barrel as a small, colorful flapping thing with large, shimmering wings fluttered by his face. It had antennae and six spindly legs and they watched it curiously.

"Looks like some sort of crazy bug?" ventured Shock, and Lock made a grab for it but missed as the little thing flittered away.

Disappointed at failing to catch his intended prey he instead looked down at the lush, green ground. "It smells weird here." he said, wrinkling his nose at the light floral scent that filled the air. They didn't know what it was, but they had landed in a grassy field full of clover, bees and butterflies.

"Agreed," said Shock. "Let's get this over with." She swung her leg over the side of the tub and stepped out into the grass. "Hey, wasn't the ground supposed to be white?"

Lock shrugged. "There's white stuff here, look." he pointed at the clover. "I'm sure that's what Jack meant. C'mon, let's go." He sounded confident but Shock wasn't quite sure… but she followed along anyway as he leapt out of the tub and Barrel clambered out behind him, carrying his lollipop and their black bag that they intended to put Sandy Claws in once they caught him. Shock carried the axe and some rope, and Lock carried the spiked mace and a firecracker.

"Hadn't we better hide the tub while we look for him?" asked Barrel, and Lock and Shock had to agree that was a wise idea. As if it had heard them, the tub trundled over to a large bush covered with little purple blossoms and concealed itself within as best it could. Being the tallest, Shock peeked over the bush and scanned the horizon for any sign of where they should go. In the distance she saw a valley with a little cluster of hills tucked down in the middle of it and there seemed to be small brown doors in the sides of the hills. Jack had said there would be little houses and these looked like the closest thing to houses within sight.

"This way." she said, pointing.

"How do you know?" challenged Lock.

"Because it looks like there's houses there, dummy."

"I don't trust your eyesight. Give me a boost and let me look."

Shock gave him a nasty glare, but it was true that he had the best eyesight of the three of them. "FINE." she grumbled and bent slightly for him to climb onto her piggy-back style. Lock peered around her tall hat and saw the same thing that she did.

"Yeah, that looks right." he said as if it was his idea, and Shock wanted to throttle him.

"Hey, look what I found!" exclaimed Barrel. He'd been tuning out their bickering and examining the shrubbery, and found several brightly colored eggs tucked beneath it. He picked one up and Lock and Shock both took a closer look.

"I think it's an egg." said Shock.

"We should take some home and throw them at the Mayor's house." Lock snickered, and the three of them giggled wickedly as they collected several eggs each and put them in Shock's scorpion box for safekeeping. "Alright, down to business!" said Lock, puffing out his chest and striding confidently in the direction of the little valley. Shock and Barrel followed close behind, keeping an eye out for Sandy Claws or any other creature.

"We should be careful to stay out of sight," cautioned Shock, "We don't want Sandy Claws to catch word that we're here." They stuck a little bit closer to the bushes and trees, attempting to be stealthy, but it wasn't easy when the three of them stuck out like sore thumbs in their dark, dreary clothing. They saw more birds and more little flappy colorful bugs, then suddenly a new creature emerged: fuzzy little yellow birds walking along and pecking at the ground with their beaks and scratching it with their feet. The children ducked behind a bush and watched them, unaware that the proper term for them was _'chicks'_.

"Those have claws!" whispered Lock.

"Hardly," huffed Shock. "More like glorified toenails if you ask me."

"Well I _didn't_ ask you," he mocked, but he knew that her description was more accurate. Shock ignored him. "Sandy Claws is big and red with some white, but Jack said that he has little helpers so these must be the ones that work for him." she reasoned. Lock and Barrel nodded and the three of them continued towards the valley.

"I really wanna catch one of those things…" Lock murmured as they snuck past another little flock of chicks. "And I bet Oogie Boogie would wanna eat some of those weird flying bugs."

"After we get Sandy Claws back to Jack, we should come back here and see what mischief we can cause." suggested Shock with a wicked smile on her face, and all three of them agreed that was a grand idea. Before too terribly long they had reached the valley and encountered yet another new creature: these were pastel-colored, furry beasts with long slender ears and large back feet that they used to hop around. They had little fluffball tails and wiggly little noses and whiskers. "This place just gets weirder and weirder…" Shock muttered as they watched several of them hop past. Suddenly Lock spotted one that stood out among the rest and he elbowed Barrel.

"Look at that one…" he whispered. "I bet that's him!" He pointed to one of the hopping beasts: it was much larger than all the rest, colored pink with a white chin and belly, wearing a light yellow sash and carrying a basket with a purple ribbon tied around it and filled with the colorful eggs.

"It must be…" said Barrel. "It's the biggest and it's the only one wearing anything so he must be special."

"Yeah, but wasn't Sandy Claws supposed to be red?" said Shock dubiously.

"Pink is practically red." said Lock. "I bet that's the closest color to red in this whole stupid place."

"Nuh-uh," said Barrel, pointing to a bright red tulip nearby. "That's pretty red."

"Whatever, my point still stands. Pink is basically red." hissed Lock.

Barrel snickered, "Does that mean you're wearing pink and have pink hair?"

Lock smacked him on the back of the head. "Shut up, Barrel!"

"Both of you shut up!" snapped Shock. She agreed that if anyone here was Sandy Claws then it had to be this one.

"How are we gonna bag him?" asked Barrel, rubbing the back of his head.

"We're gonna do what Shock said earlier, of course." said Lock. "Put out some bait and a trap."

"What kind of trap?" Barrel asked again.

"Leave it to me." said Shock proudly, and she looped the rope around and starting tying a knot. "You two take the axe and go chop down a couple of really big branches, or some really small trees. We're going to set up a snare."

The boys hurried to do as she said, starting to get excited about capturing their quarry. They found a few young trees that seemed sturdy enough to hold Sandy Claws but not so thick that it would take forever to chop them down. They took turns with the axe and when the trees were felled they each drug one back to where Shock was, chattering excitedly about how fun it was going to be to catch the ruler of Christmas Town and bring him back to applause and acclaim from everyone in their own town, and then to Oogie Boogie to gain even more good favor with him. By then Shock had tied a large noose in the rope and she turned her head towards them as they approached. "Perfect," she grinned. "I've been watching and I think I know which house is Sandy Claws's. That big one, over there, I saw him go into it not five minutes ago."

"It's not really a house, though, is it?" puzzled Barrel. The hills didn't really have doors, just holes in the earth, like a burrow.

"Either way, if that's where he went, then that's where we put our trap!" said Lock. "He'll have to come out sooner or later. You keep a lookout and me and Shock will set up the snare. Give me your lollipop."

Barrel clutched his lollipop possessively. "Why?"

"For bait, stupid."

Barrel frowned but knew it was useless to refuse. If he tried, then Lock and Shock would just hit him until he surrendered it. "Fine." he grumbled and handed it over.

"If you see anyone coming, make a loud chirping sound. Like those dumb birds, but louder." suggested Lock, then he and Shock crept cautiously from their hiding place, dragging the two trees and rope behind them. Together they propped the trees up against the hill on either side of the burrow hole, then Shock tied them together with the noose hanging between them while Lock held the trees steady. "This is really fun," he grinned wickedly at her.

She grinned back at him as she positioned the noose just perfectly around the burrow hole. "I know, we haven't gotten to do anything this fun for awhile. And it will be even more fun watching him get stuck in our trap!"

"And then shoved in our bag!" he smirked.

"And thrown in our tub!" she giggled, putting the finishing touches on the snare and then stepping back to inspect their handiwork. Lock put the lollipop down on the other side of the noose - when Sandy Claws came out he would have no choice but to go through it and then they'd have him! They crept back to where Barrel was hiding in the bushes, snickering evilly. Now they just had to wait.

Waiting turned out to be the hardest part of the mission so far. None of them had very lengthy attention-spans and before long the boredom became excruciating. First they smashed all the colored eggs that were within reach, then they took turns watching for Sandy Claws, poking around in the dirt looking for bugs to squish, or plucking leaves and flowers off of the bush and shredding them. Barrel actually nodded off for a moment before Shock noticed and shoved him awake. Lock wished he had brought his slingshot to try and nail some of those fat little bluebirds that were watching them curiously from high in the trees, but it was probably just as well because he doubted Shock would have let him shoot anything anyway, for fear of alerting Sandy Claws to their location. Just about the moment they were all three convinced they were about to die from boredom they heard a scuffling noise and they scrambled to look through the bushes: Sandy Claws was poking his head out of his burrow, sniffing at the lollipop.

"Finally!" whispered Lock, and Shock shushed him as Sandy Claws perked his ears up a bit at the noise then looked around, but the children were well-concealed in the shrubbery and soon he went back to sniffing the candy. The three of them watched with bated breath as he hopped forward through the noose, tripping it so that it cinched tightly around his large back feet and he squeaked in alarm.

"Bag him!" shouted Lock, entirely forgetting the concept of stealth, and they each grabbed a corner of the bag and leapt out from their hiding place, containing Sandy Claws inside it before he even seemed to know what hit him. He thrashed around as Shock quickly tied the bag tightly shut and all three of them had to use all of their strength and weight to keep him inside until he finally stopped struggling.

"Uh… how are we supposed to get him back to the bathtub?" asked Barrel, still draped across the bag. "He's really heavy, I don't think we can carry him very far."

Lock hadn't even thought of that and it embarrassed him, so he directed the blame onto Barrel. "You're the one who said we should hide the tub! I thought we should have brought it with us!"

"Liar, you didn't say that!" Shock scoffed at him.

"Well, I thought it!"

"Fat lot of good just thinking about it does us, brainiac!" she shouted, also forgetting the concept of staying quiet.

"Well you didn't say it out loud, either, so you're just as much to blame as anyone!" Lock snarled.

Shock didn't have a retort to that because it was true, so she just glared at him and said, "First let's drag him behind the bush in case anyone comes by and then let's send Barrel back for the tub while we keep an eye on Sandy Claws." She turned to look at their littlest cohort. "Think you can handle that and not get caught or lost?"

Barrel nodded, secretly a little scared to go off by himself in this weird place but also glad to get away from their bickering and blame for a little bit. The three of them dragged the heavy bag back to their hiding place, then Lock said, "And hurry up, I don't want to sit here all day!"

Barrel gave him a surly look as he picked his dirty lollipop up off the ground and headed off the direction they'd come from. "Alright, alright, I don't want to be here all day either, you know!" he grumbled, and Lock threw a small rock after him, which made Shock snicker a little. They spent the time waiting for Barrel's return bragging to each other about what a great team the three of them made, pointing out and making fun of every dumb thing about this stupid, soft, pastel world and wondering why on earth Jack was so interested in it. They also speculated on what rewards they might expect for the successful completion of their mission and discussed possible pranks they could pull in this new place.

"Not only here, but there are five other doors where we can cause trouble!" Shock pointed out, and Lock grinned deviously. This Christmas Town might be boring, and he assumed that the other worlds would be boring as well - except for maybe the firecracker one - but they wouldn't stay boring for long if the three of them had any say in the matter. Eventually they heard the telltale sound of the tub approaching and soon saw it push through a nearby bush and come to a halt beside them when Barrel flipped the faucet handle to _'off'_. It squatted as low to the ground as it could and the children heave-ho'd the heavy sack and the hapless holiday leader within into the tub with a thud. The three of them laughed wickedly as Barrel started up the tub again and Lock led them all back through the forest until they reached the circle of doors, with Shock bringing up the rear. They marched straight up to the jack-o-lantern door and this time Lock opened it all the way without any trepidation. "Jump in the tub, moron!" called Shock as she climbed into it herself. "We all need to hang on to Sandy Claws to make sure he doesn't fall out, and even though I wouldn't care if you got squished, I don't want to have to scrape the mess off of the bathtub later." Lock stuck his tongue out at her but clambered in and held on tight as they stepped into the door and fell once again into the darkness.

"Ah! Much better!" Lock sighed in relief and inhaled deeply as he hopped back out of the tub, welcoming the pleasant scent of dead leaves and general decay as they arrived home. "You can say that again!" said Barrel, maintaining his position on top of the bag while Shock jumped down to walk next to Lock and they all headed towards town, eager to show off their victory. They threw open the doors to town hall where Jack was still assigning duties to the other townspeople and the trio walked towards the stage, pointing to their trophy and feeling incredibly proud of themselves.

"Jack, Jack, we got him, we got him!" they shouted in unison.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Jack with a wide and excited grin on his bony face. "Open it up, quickly!" Barrel pulled the rope and Sandy Claws jumped out with so much force that it knocked him backwards onto the floor, and Lock and Shock watched as Sandy Claws leapt right over their heads and landed gracefully on one of the bench seats. Jack gasped, "That's not Sandy Claws!"

The children were stunned. "It isn't?" Shock asked, taking a few steps back.

"Who is it?" added Barrel from the floor as Not-Sandy-Claws hopped to the front of the hall. Lock hurried around the tub to join his friends, not wanting to be too close to Jack now that it seemed they had made a mistake. Not-Sandy-Claws was nose to nose with Behemoth for only a second before the latter's excited exclamation drove the former back into the bag, squeaking and shivering with terror. The children exchanged nervous looks. How could they have gone wrong?

"NOT Sandy Claws! Take him back!" Jack ordered, looking incredibly stern and the three of them took another few steps back.

"We followed your instructions!" Lock protested, a hint of desperation in his voice as he held out his palms in a helpless sort of gesture.

"We went through the door!" Barrel added sheepishly. Shock didn't say anything, too scared to contradict the Pumpkin King.

" _Which_ door? There's more than one!" Jack scolded them, then reached behind him to grab a small brown and green cookie that was decidedly _not_ the same shape as the door they had chosen. "Sandy Claws is behind the door shaped like THIS."

Lock's heart immediately sank with the realization that Shock had been right after all, and that it was his fault that they went through the wrong door. He wrung his hands anxiously and tried to think of an excuse, some way to talk himself out of trouble, but before he could speak Shock's hands were around his neck and squeezing tightly.

"I _told_ you!" she said in an accusing tone, throttling him a bit. _'Stupid Lock!'_ she thought to herself. How did she let him talk her into picking the wrong door? He was always talking her into doing stupid things. Lock reached up to try and pry her hands from his throat and his mask fell off as she choked him. He didn't see Barrel winding up his arm to throw a punch at him, but mercifully Barrel missed and struck Shock in the face instead, knocking her mask off and landing on his own backside. Shock released her hold on Lock's neck and moved towards Barrel, intending to clock him a good one for hitting her, but before she could smack him Lock recovered his breath and tackled her, knocking her to the ground and punching her everywhere he could reach.

"Ow! Ow!" she shrieked and reached up to grab his hair and pull it hard.

"Knock it off!" he growled back, and they were so caught up in their fight that they didn't notice Jack's exasperated expression before a horrible roar caused all three of them to break apart and jump to their feet to cower before the Pumpkin King's rage.

Jack turned back to the quivering bag and said in a very diplomatic, apologetic tone, "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, sir." Then he narrowed his gaze on the children again and demanded, "Take him home first. And apologize again!" The tub lurched forward and began walking towards the exit, and the kids put their masks back on as Jack called after them, "Be careful with Sandy Claws when you fetch him, treat him nicely!"

"You got it!" replied Barrel and Lock, thankful that they had gotten off with just a stern talking-to instead of a beating, like Oogie Boogie would no doubt have done if they had made such a big mistake with him.

"We'll get it right," added Shock.

"Next time!" they said together and hurried out the door, feeling a little ashamed but even more determined to succeed this time.


	3. Chapter 3

"Way to go, dirt-for-brains!" Shock hissed at Lock as they made their way down the Town Hall steps. "If we had gone through the door I chose we'd be done by now and Jack wouldn't be mad at us! Now he probably thinks we're all stupid."

It was one of those rare moments when Lock had no way to defend himself. It wasn't like Shock hadn't offered an alternative suggestion (and the correct one, at that) so he couldn't write this mishap off to the burdens of being the leader. "Well, how was I supposed to know?" he muttered, but it was a weak excuse.

"Because he TOLD us, dummy!" snarled Shock.

"Well I'm sorry, okay!?" Lock snapped back at her, "You didn't have to strangle me about it, though!"

Barrel stepped in between them and said, "I'm hungry. Let's swipe some food before we go all the way back to Christmas Town."

"Not-Christmas-Town," Shock reminded him.

"Good idea," said Lock, eager to change the subject away from his mistake, plus he was hungry, too. It had been a very long time since breakfast and the journey to get Not-Sandy-Claws had taken so long that it was practically dinner time. Being children, they had no money of their own so they survived on whatever they could hunt, forage or steal, and sometimes - when they made him really, really happy - Oogie Boogie would cook some snake and spider stew for them. Jack had offered them a monthly allowance because he didn't want three hungry children in his town no matter how annoying they were - but while Barrel had wanted to accept the offer, Lock had stubbornly refused and Shock had agreed with him, too prideful to admit that they could use some help. Besides, stealing was more fun anyway, at least when they didn't get caught and forced to work off their debt. Their enjoyment of stealing would have been only slightly dampened if they knew that Jack ended up reimbursing all of their victims for the food they stole out of his own funds anyway - it was more about the thrill of the heist for the children. They parked the tub and Not-Sandy-Claws behind a building, then eyed Clown's sales cart full of cotton candy, hotfrogs and fried spider legs. They all decided that would make a nice meal, so - as always - Barrel was given the task of causing a distraction while Lock and Shock snuck some food. Barrel thought that they were giving him a compliment by entrusting him with the important job of distracting the victim, but really they did it because it made him the most likely to be caught and punished. Being quite small, it was fairly easy for Barrel to sneak up behind Clown without being noticed and he yanked the rubber chicken right out of Clown's belt and then took off running as fast as his stumpy little legs and ungainly feet would take him, laughing loudly all the way. Clown fell for it and immediately zoomed after Barrel on his unicycle, screaming with rage. Lock and Shock had their routine worked out smoothly by now and they moved quickly - Barrel couldn't run all that fast and Clown would catch him before too long. Shock gave Lock a boost and he leaned into the cart to take and then hand her down six hotfrogs, then he shoved three baggies of fried spider legs into his pockets before grabbing three cotton candies and jumping off of her shoulders. They quickly ran and hid behind the nearest building and Shock put her fingers between her lips and whistled loudly - Barrel's signal that the food had been successfully obtained. Barrel heard her whistle and threw the rubber chicken behind his back at Clown to hopefully throw him off the chase, then scurried over a low wall where the unicycle couldn't follow and circled back around to where Lock and Shock were waiting. They congratulated one another on their successful heist and sat on the ground around the tub to wolf down their food.

"Alright, let's get out of here before Clown notices we nicked some food." said Lock after a few minutes, cramming the last overly-large bite of hotfrog into his mouth. Shock still had some cotton candy left but she could easily eat that on the way. Barrel always finished eating first so he was already climbing up onto the tub to get it started again and make sure that the rope securing Not-Sandy-Claws in the bag was still good and tight. The other two joined him and their prisoner in the tub even though it was a tight fit because they were getting tired and it was a long walk back to the holiday doors. The huge, yellow, full moon was out and lighting their way by the time they finally arrived and trundled right up to the Not-Christmas-Town door. Shock hopped down from the tub to pull it open when Lock said, "Hang on, we can't send him back without doing _something_ to him! I know, let's cut off his stupid fluffy tail!" he grinned maliciously and flicked his own tail.

"You moron, do you know how much trouble we'll get in if Jack finds out we did that? No, we need to send him home and apologize again." Her words sounded responsible but the wicked look on her face told a different story. "We should send him back with a nice going-away present." she said in that false-sweet tone of hers and then looked around the clearing, clearly searching for something but Lock and Barrel didn't know what. At last she seemed to have spotted it. "Ah ha! That'll work." She walked over to a nearby tree and the other two saw what had caught her eye: a very large spider web containing a very large spider with sharp mandibles and a very large egg sack that looked VERY close to hatching. She plucked the spider and egg sack free and cupped them carefully in her hands, her gloves protecting her from the spider's angry bites. "Send the scorpions down there with him, too!" she cackled, and Lock grabbed the scorpion box and joined Shock by the Not-Christmas-Town door.

"OK, Barrel, open the bag!" said Lock, and Barrel hurried to the side of the tub where he could grab hold of the rope, careful to make sure he wasn't between Not-Sandy-Claws and the open door.

"One, two, THREE!" they all shouted together, then Barrel released the rope and gave the bag a good kick to encourage its occupant to leave. Not-Sandy-Claws hopped out with just as much force as he had before, but this time instead of landing on a bench he flew right through the open door and dropped like a rock down into the darkness, squeaking in terror. The children laughed hysterically and Lock and Shock threw the spider and scorpions into the door after him.

"We're sorry, Mr. Not-Sandy-Claws!" Shock yelled sarcastically into the open door before slamming it shut. "There, we sent him home and apologized, just like Jack said!" she snickered, looking at her cohorts with a satisfied expression before she burst out laughing. Lock and Barrel were practically rolling on the ground, howling with laughter. Their earlier mortification at screwing up their mission was forgotten and instead they all decided that they were happy to have kidnapped the wrong holiday leader because it had given them one extra person to torment and one more good joke to play. After they had laughed themselves silly, Lock suggested they head home for the evening and the other two agreed. It had been a very long and action-packed day, they still had a long journey back to the treehouse and they were getting very tired, which always led to extra fighting - but fortunately it also meant that they didn't have the energy to actually punch, kick, slap or strangle each other much. They clambered into the bathtub again and Barrel flipped the faucet handle to _'on'_ and they headed back down the trail towards home.

They had only been traveling for about five minutes when a sudden realization dawned on Lock. "Aw, no, we threw the eggs that we were going to throw at the Mayor's house back in that door with the scorpions!"

"You mean YOU threw them back in," Shock corrected him in a snotty tone, and he glared at her. "Don't worry," she continued, "We'll just go get some more later. And some of those bugs and little bird things for Oogie to eat, and whatever else interesting we can find." Barrel yawned loudly and slid down to the bottom of the tub to sleep, trusting Lock or Shock to stay awake - but even if they didn't, the tub knew the way home. For a little while Lock and Shock occasionally remarked on how funny it was to see Not-Sandy-Claws fall down the door and made rough plans on what they might do differently when they actually got to Christmas Town for real, but soon they went quiet as sleepiness overtook them, too. Barrel was the only one who was a heavy-enough sleeper to actually truly fall fast asleep in the shaky, lumbering tub, but eventually Lock and Shock were tired enough to able to doze off, too. The bathtub arrived at the treehouse well past midnight with all three little trick-or-treaters curled up together for warmth and comfort inside it. If one didn't know better, they almost looked innocent when they were sleeping - almost. They lurched to a stop once the tub reached it's place in the treehouse and Lock and Shock woke up as the abrupt halt knocked their heads together a little bit. They had been snuggled side by side with Barrel curled up at their feet like a lapdog, still snoring softly with a little trickle of drool running down the side of his face, fast asleep and completely oblivious to the fact that they were home.

"Ow…" Lock and Shock muttered groggily, rubbing their heads where they had hit one another before they climbed out of the tub and dragged themselves to bed. They left Barrel in the tub, either he would wake up and go to bed before morning or he wouldn't, they really didn't care either way. Tomorrow would be another day, another opportunity to try again, and this time they wouldn't fail.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning came far too early for their liking. The orange sun was beaming obnoxiously through the broken and boarded-up windows of the treehouse and the crowing of a skeletal rooster echoed in the distance. Lock woke up with a splitting headache, his nose felt all stuffed-up and his eyes were burning. Everything seemed to hurt as he groaned and rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, dragging his tail limply behind him. He looked into the cracked mirror hanging crookedly on the wall and couldn't remember ever looking this awful: his eyes were bleary and red-rimmed, their lids puffy and even more purple than usual. A pathetic little moan came from the tub and Lock leaned over to look inside and found Barrel still huddled at the bottom, curled up on his side and shivering a bit. "I feel sick." Barrel moaned again.

"Me doo." said Lock stuffily, rubbing his temples with his fingertips but then he stopped because it only seemed to make things worse.

"Ged oud of here, I dink I'm gonna hurl." came Shock's voice from the doorway. She sounded just as stuffed-up as her cohorts and looked just as terrible, the dark bags beneath her eyes worse than normal and her pale green skin was nearly white. Not wanting to witness Shock puking her guts out for fear that it might make them barf as well, Lock grabbed the box of tissues off of the counter and left the bathroom as Barrel heaved himself over the side of the tub and followed, dragging his stumpy feet all the way. Lock collapsed on the beat-up old sofa and closed his eyes, breathing heavily through his mouth and trying to will his headache to go away. Barrel didn't even make it as far as the sofa, he just curled up on the living room rug, whimpering pitiably to himself. They heard Shock retching from the bathroom and Lock wanted to plug his ears but his head was pounding and putting any extra pressure against it sounded worse than listening to Shock puking. Barrel stopped hugging himself long enough to rub his eyes - they were itchy and red and his mouth and throat felt dry and gritty, like he had eaten a bucketful of sand. "What's wrong wid us?" he whined after a few moments.

"I bet id was dat stupid Not-Christmas-Down dat made us all sick…" Shock answered from the doorway, walking slowly and stiffly and pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. "Everyding smelled and felt funny dere." She lay down on the ratty old sofa next to Lock, who was trying to blow his nose but having minimal success - he was just too stuffed up.

Barrel let out an enormous sneeze from the floor. "But Jack wend dere and didn'd ged sick." he muffled, rolling onto his front. He spotted a candy bar that had somehow ended up under the sofa but looking at it made him feel even more sick to his stomach.

"Jack didn'd go wherever we wend, he wend to Christmas Down, remember?" Shock corrected him.

"And besides, Jack's a skeledon, dey probably can'd even ged sick!" Lock said angrily, deciding to blame Jack for their predicament. Why didn't he warn them? And not only had the Pumpkin King not told them that the funny-smelling air in that ridiculous pastel world could make them sick, but then he had yelled at them for making an honest mistake. Nobody in this stupid town ever appreciated them, it seemed, and right now the last thing Lock felt like doing was following any orders from stupid old Jack, no matter how scary he could be. "I'b going back do bed." he muttered, balling up his useless tissue and throwing it. "Catching Sandy Claws can waid."

"Me doo." said Barrel. He sneezed again, then followed that up with several hacking coughs.

Shock nodded weakly from the sofa as she pulled the tattered throw blanket over herself. "I'b staying here. I need do be near duh bathroomb in case I need do puke again." The boys nodded back at her before trudging to their respective rooms and collapsing back into bed.

Their illness lasted several days and the children barely left their beds except to check and re-set the traps to send their daily offering down to Oogie Boogie - they couldn't skip that duty no matter how sick they felt or else the Boogie Man would beat them and then they would feel even worse. After the third day Shock felt just barely well enough to heat up a small batch of soup and bring bowls to both Lock and Barrel. She was the oldest, after all, and felt it was her duty to take care of them since they were so little and helpless. The boys accepted the soup gratefully, the warm, nutritious brew giving them strength and soothing their tummies. On the fifth day they sat on the sofa together, sipping the last of the soup and planning their next move.

"Okay," said Lock, now feeling considerably less stuffed-up and mostly headache-free. "Here's the plan: we're gonna go to town and tell Jack what happened, then we'll tell him we're not gonna run his stupid errands anymore! He can't boss us around!" Barrel and Shock exchanged looks: Barrel looking scared and Shock looking exasperated.

"B-but, he's the Pumpkin King!" Barrel stammered. "We can't tell him that, who knows what he'll do to us!" He looked terrified at the very thought.

Shock turned her exasperated face to Lock. "Exactly. We can tell him what happened, but we still have to fetch Sandy Claws. _I_ don't want to get beaten black and green, and besides that do you want Jack and everyone else to think we're a bunch of sissy crybabies?"

"Only sissy crybabies take orders!" spat Lock, even though that would mean the three of them were always sissy crybabies because they took orders from Oogie all the time.

"No, only sissy crybabies chicken out just because they got a stuffy nose!" Shock sneered at him, dabbing at her own nose with a tissue.

Lock frowned at her but he knew that his cohorts were right. He didn't want to imagine what terrible ways Jack might punish them if they disobeyed and he also didn't want Shock to think that he was as weak and pathetic as she and Barrel were, so it was up to him to be strong and lead the way, as always. "Okay, here's the plan:" he repeated. "We're gonna go to town and tell Jack what happened and then we're gonna ask and see if there's anything he can do so we don't get sick again."

"And we should research this Christmas Town a little more." added Shock. "Jack had a bunch of books and stuff at the Town Hall, we should read them and see if it tells us anything so we're more prepared and don't screw up again."

Lock rolled his eyes. Reading was such a boring waste of time. "Okay whatever, you can waste your time with that, I'll be doing more important things."

"Like what?" said Shock, half disdainful and half curious to see what he would actually say.

"You know… stuff."

"Sure." She rolled her eyes. It was just as she'd suspected, Lock didn't have any other important things to do at all. What important things could a bossy, annoying little devil possibly have to do?

"Can we do all this tomorrow?" chimed in Barrel, sniffling a little bit. "I still feel kinda crummy."

"We'll go at the end of the week." said Lock. "That way we're sure to be all better." The other two nodded, then they all finished their soup and headed back to bed.

On the eighth day they finally all felt pretty much back to normal like Lock had predicted, so after a big breakfast and sending the offering down the chute they donned their masks, grabbed their slingshots and headed for town. It felt good to stretch their little legs and walk, finally able to breath in the pleasing scent of death and decay in the open air through their un-congested noses. The Christmas-related activity in town had drastically escalated since the last time the trick-or-treaters were there: everyone was hurrying about, hanging up strings of lights, green wreaths, garlands and other garish decorations. Most of the decorations were truly ugly and the children again wondered what madness had possessed Jack to make him want to do this, but they couldn't help feeling excited by all of the hustle and bustle anyway. The countdown clock on the Town Hall had a sign that read _'X-Mas'_ hanging in front of the usual _'Halloween'_ and they noted that according to this clock there were still twenty-seven days left until Christmas. "Plenty of time!" Lock said casually, gesturing towards it. Barrel was watching Harlequin with great interest - the demon had a pile of dead rats in front of him and was smashing them flat with a mallet, and then forming them into a sort of shallow bowl shape and stacking them to the side. Barrel couldn't comprehend why Harlequin would be doing such a thing, but he thought the flat rats looked kind of neat and made a mental note to try and steal one later.

"I don't see Jack," said Shock, standing on her tiptoes to try and see better through the crowd, but to no avail. Just then the fat little corpse kid went waddling past them, holding a box wrapped in orange and black paper.

"Hey kid!" Lock shouted at him.

"You know my name's Ethan…" the corpse kid mumbled, refusing to look directly at them. All the other kids in town were afraid of the Boogie Boys - they were bad news, and Ethan's parents had warned him on many occasions to stay away from them. But ignoring them when they were speaking directly at you wasn't an option, because if you did then they would beat you up or worse. Ethan would never forget the time they had held him down and pulled the stitches out of his eyes. It hadn't really hurt, but it was embarrassing and getting them sewn back in wasn't very much fun.

"Yeah, we know your name, we just don't care!" Shock said meanly, and Barrel giggled.

"Where's Jack?" Lock demanded, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest aggressively.

"Last time I saw him he was by the fountain." Ethan said quietly, still looking at the ground and keeping the gift-wrapped box between him and the Boogie Boys. Luckily that seemed to satisfy them and he let out a sigh of relief when without another word the terrible trio turned away from him and walked in the direction of the fountain.

They did indeed find Jack at the fountain talking to the lagoon monster about something, and the children were glad that there were plenty of witnesses around now that they were returning to Jack empty-handed after more than an entire week - hopefully Jack wouldn't beat them up in front of everybody for not succeeding at their mission yet. Jack wasn't mean like Oogie Boogie was… he had never hurt them before, but he _had_ said that their mission was a top priority so maybe them still not completing it would make him mad enough to hurt them now. Lock took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to speak - as the leader he knew it was his duty to take the fall because Shock and Barrel were just too weak and pathetic compared to him, and they couldn't take a beating the way he could. "Jack," he said in his bravest voice, "We need to talk to you." The Pumpkin King turned away from the lagoon monster to look down at them, and fortunately he was smiling.

Shock stepped up beside Lock, worried that he would say something dumb and get them all in even more trouble then they probably already were. He was always mouthing off and saying stupid things, so as the cleverest of the three of them she knew it was her duty to keep the boys from saying anything that might make things worse. "We haven't caught Sandy Claws yet, but we're still trying! We'll get him!" she said.

"Please don't hurt us!" added Barrel, trying to be brave but still hiding behind Shock's dress a bit.

Jack raised his brow in surprise. "Why on earth would I hurt you?" The kids just shrugged and Jack frowned. It concerned him when they said things like that. He had been suspecting for some time now that something wasn't quite right over at the treehouse, but until fairly recently he had only thought that perhaps Oogie Boogie was just rather neglectful of the children by not teaching them manners, setting good boundaries or feeding them on a regular schedule… but now he was starting to wonder if they weren't being physically hurt as well. Scaring them into obedience was one thing, but Jack had noticed the way they flinched and backed away from him even when he was only being stern and now considering what Barrel just said evidence supporting this troubling theory was starting to stack up. It would have to be thoroughly investigated and dealt with, and soon. In the meantime however, Jack would try to be a more positive adult influence. "I'm not going to hurt you, just keep trying and do your best. But remember: your job is very, very important, so you must succeed." He paused… they already seemed frightened enough so he decided to try flattery, hoping that making them feel special would be just as effective as scaring them. "That's why I chose the three of you to do it, no one else in Halloween Town is as crafty and clever as you are." His words seemed to have the desired effect because even though he couldn't see their expressions from under their masks, their postures straightened up from cowering to proud.

"We will, Jack." said Barrel, now sounding considerably less afraid.

"But there's one problem we have to ask you about," added Shock.

"Whatever place we went to that wasn't Christmas Town made us all sick. That's why we haven't talked to you in so long." said Lock.

"So we want to ask if you know how to keep us from getting sick again when we get to Christmas Town for real." finished Shock.

"Really?" said Jack in surprise. "How sick did you get?"

"Really sick." the three of them answered in unison, then Barrel added:

"Shock was puking!"

"Hmmm…" Jack scratched his chin. It was a strange thing for them to say, but he couldn't figure out any reason why they would invent such a lie. Christmas Town hadn't made him sick, but who knew what was behind the door that the children had gone through instead? Plus they weren't skeletons like he was - hardly anything could make Jack feel ill but he knew that wasn't necessarily the case for devils, witches and ghouls, especially very young ones. He decided to believe them, and tried to come up with the best solution. Finally he decided, "Very well. I am sorry you got sick. Why don't you go see Sally and tell her what happened, and ask her - nicely - to make a protective potion for you to take before you go again? She's very gifted with herbs and potions, I'm sure she'll be able to help. I think you can find her at home at Dr. Finkelsteins' laboratory." The trio nodded in understanding. They hated taking medicine, but they hated being sick even more.

"One more thing," said Shock.

"Yes?" answered Jack.

"Well, since we made such a big mistake by catching Not-Sandy-Claws, can we borrow some of your Christmas books and stuff to look at? To make sure we get it right this time." she said, and Lock had to work hard to keep from rolling his eyes. He had no idea what Shock was expecting to learn from reading a bunch of dumb books, but she was such a stubborn witch that he knew it was useless to argue. Barrel was secretly a bit curious to see the books as well. The excited buzzing of the town was contagious and all of the colorful boxes and decorations were intriguing despite some of them being rather ugly, and he was starting to wonder more what this Christmas was all about.

"Of course!" Jack said happily. Any resident of Halloween Town showing interest in Christmas delighted him, and he hadn't been expecting it from these three which made it extra delightful. "Go up to the Town Hall stage, I have a whole trunk full of books about Christmas and Sandy Claws there! Tell the Mayor I sent you and that it's okay for you to borrow some of them." The kids nodded even though they doubted that the Mayor would believe them when they said Jack had given them permission. But they didn't really care what the Mayor thought and he didn't scare them one bit, so they would just take the books anyway whether he believed them or not. "Is there anything else you need?" The kids shook their heads. "Very well then, off you go!" Jack said cheerfully, and the trio turned away and headed towards Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. "Be polite when you talk to Sally! If you are rude, I will find out about it!" he called after them, and the kids turned around and gave him a thumbs-up before disappearing into the crowd.

The laboratory was almost as far out of town as their own treehouse was and they had to walk quite a ways just to reach the gates, then they still had a long and arduous trek up the hill to reach the laboratory itself. It was a tall, imposing building made of stone with a large metal dome on top, with several tall lightening rods sticking out of it. It had caused quite a stir in town when the doctor had created Sally and the children enjoyed speculating about all the weird and creepy things he might get up to in there… Dr. Finkelstein was definitely creepy but he didn't scare the kids too much. Sure, he was smart, but he couldn't get around very well in that wheelchair so he'd have to catch them first in order to do anything awful to them. They arrived at the door to find the doorbell far above their heads and out of reach. They couldn't reach the door handles, either, so they couldn't have let themselves in even if it wasn't locked. Lock pounded his fists against the thick doors with all his might, but it barely made a sound so he turned to his companions and said, "Alright, time to make a tower." They got into their well-practiced positions: Shock braced her arms against the door, then Lock clambered onto her back to stand on her shoulders and then Barrel climbed up the both of them like a monkey up a tree. Standing on his tiptoes on Lock's shoulders, Barrel was just barely able to push the doorbell and the deafening ring just about toppled their little tower, but they hung on long enough for him to push the doorbell one more time. After a few minutes the door creaked open and the doctor's assistant, Igor, let them inside.

"What do you waaant?" he asked, glaring at them suspiciously with his single, bulbous, yellow eye. The trick-or-treaters snickered a bit to themselves remembering the time they had managed to sneak a laxative into his box of bone biscuits, and judging by the look on Igor's face he was remembering it, too.

"Jack sent us here." said Lock.

"To see Sally." added Shock

"For medicine." Barrel finished.

Igor studied them carefully for another moment, then said, "Wait heeere." and staggered up the stairs. When he was out of sight the trio looked around to see if there was any trouble they could cause that wouldn't be noticed immediately, but the entryway was completely barren. Shock tried to loosen up a few of the screws in the plate-metal wall but they wouldn't budge, so they gave up and just took some pebbles out of their pockets and flung them against the walls with their slingshots, hoping to make some dents in the metal. It didn't leave any dents, but it did make a cool metallic _'ping'_ sort of sound that echoed all the way up the tall tower. After what felt like forever, Sally came lurching down the staircase to meet them. They had never really interacted with Sally much except for that one time they had pushed her down the Town Hall steps just to watch the rag doll fall apart, so they thought they'd better introduce themselves and at least pretend to be nice just so she wouldn't give them bad-tasting medicine or even poison them. Most of the time the doctor kept her locked up in the tower, but when they did see her around town she was very quiet, and the kids thought she'd probably be an easy one to play more tricks on… but just because she seemed quiet didn't mean she might not give them something bad-tasting or poisonous so the children took off their masks and tried to look well-behaved.

"Hello, Miss Sally." said Shock in her sugary-sweet tone of voice. "I'm Shock, this is Lock, and this is Barrel."

"Hello, Shock, Lock, Barrel." said Sally, nodding to each of them in turn. "It's nice to meet you all properly." She remembered them pushing her down the stairs very well, but it hadn't bothered her too badly. It was embarrassing to fall apart in public, but it certainly didn't hurt and she always kept her needle and thread handy for just such incidents. Besides, they were just children and deep down she rather envied them their freedom and boldness. Plus they were such cute little monsters that Sally couldn't stay mad at them for one little prank. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Barrel didn't know exactly what that phrase meant, but he thought Sally seemed kind and also looked rather pretty up close so he smiled shyly up at her and said, "Jack sent us."

Lock knew what the phrase meant and thought that Sally was sort of pretty, too, but he also could tell right away that she was most definitely a weak, push-over sap who would be perfect to play more tricks on once they didn't need her for medicine anymore. "We need you to make us some medicine." he said in his most charming voice.

"Please." added Shock, sweetly. She thought Sally was rather pretty as well - she liked her long red hair and her multi-colored, multi-patterned dress, but decided to reserve further judgment until they'd interacted with her more.

"Oh, are you sick?" Sally asked, sounding concerned.

"Not anymore, but we were." said Lock.

"We went through the wrong door." squeaked Barrel, now feeling very shy indeed. Sally wasn't sure what he meant until Shock clarified:

"We were supposed to go to Christmas Town for our top-secret, top-priority mission but we went somewhere else on accident and the air smelled funny and when we got home we were sick for a whole week. Jack said maybe you can make us a potion to take before we go to Christmas Town for real, so that it doesn't happen again."

"Jack said that you were the best at making potions and herbs and stuff." added Lock, turning on as much charm as a six year old devil was capable of. Sally's cheeks felt a little warm at hearing Jack had said such a thing about her and she smiled a bit bashfully at the children and said:

"Of course, I'm happy to help as best I can. Please follow me." They trailed along after her up some stairs and into the kitchen, and she gestured to a small table with two spindly-legged chairs. "Please, sit down." she said, pulling a nearby three-legged stool over to the table as well and the kids each took a seat. "Would you like a snack?" Sally asked them in a very kind voice.

"Yes." said Barrel. Whatever was in the oven smelled extremely delicious.

"No." said Lock automatically, but when Shock glared at him he remembered he was supposed to be acting well-behaved. "I mean, yes." he corrected himself.

"Please." finished Shock.

Sally smiled and opened up the oven and pulled out a tray full of cookies very similar to the one that Jack had showed them when he told them they'd gone through the wrong holiday door. "I've been practicing making them for Christmas. Tell me if you think they taste okay, won't you?" She put the cookies onto a large plate and set the whole thing down right in front of them, and the children immediately dug in. They hadn't realized how hungry they were until just that moment and the cookies really were delicious. Plus they were shaped like little people so it was fun to bite off the heads and limbs and imagine the cookies screaming in terror. Sally poured three glasses of witch hazel tea and then opened up her herb cupboard. "What exactly happened when you were sick? How did you feel?"

"Awful." Lock mumbled with his mouth full.

"Our eyes got all puffy and itchy, our noses got all stuffed up and our throats hurt…" Shock said between bites.

Lock swallowed his enormous mouthful of cookie and added, "Everything hurt."

"And Lock got a really bad headache, Barrel couldn't stop sneezing and coughing, and I threw up a bunch."

Barrel didn't say anything, he was too busy trying to eat as many cookies as possible before Lock and Shock could eat them all, and they had covered their symptoms pretty thoroughly so he had nothing else to add.

"Hmm… maybe it was some sort of allergic reaction…" Sally murmured to herself, then started pulling ingredients out of the cupboard and icebox and began mixing something up on the stove. The kids had finished their tea and just about polished off the last of the cookies by the time she finished pouring some sort of potion into three little vials. "Here you are," she said, handing one to each child. "Try taking this an hour before you go to Christmas Town. It will strengthen your immune systems so hopefully you won't get sick, or at least not _as_ sick." Then she handed a larger bottle to Shock. "Here is some extra, in case you need to go to Christmas Town more than once. Just take the same dose, understand?"

"Yes, Miss Sally." Shock said sweetly, secretly pleased that Sally had given her the bottle to carry - surely that meant that Sally had correctly picked her out as the smartest, most responsible of the three of them.

"Thanks." said Lock, cramming the last cookie into his pocket for later while Barrel wasn't looking - he was too busy grinning up at Sally again. _'What a moron,'_ Lock thought to himself. Barrel was almost as big of a sappy weakling as Sally seemed to be.

Sally led them back down the steps to the front door and waved to them as they left. "Good luck in Christmas Town!" she called after them. She was a little bit concerned about why Jack would be sending them there… what top-secret, top-priority mission could three slightly-naughty little children have to do for the Pumpkin King in a foreign land? But she decided to trust Jack's judgment despite her misgivings about this whole Christmas endeavor of his, still hoping against hope that her premonition was wrong.

"She's nice." Barrel wheezed when they finally got all the way back down the hill.

"She's a wimp, that's what she is." sneered Lock, rubbing a stitch in his side. It was really too much walking and too many stairs for one day, and he was starting to feel cranky because on top of that he'd eaten too many cookies.

"Well, wimp or not, let's hope she's as good with potions as Jack said she is." Shock said a little breathlessly. It was getting late and the sun would be setting soon, so the three of them decided to head home. Dealing with the Mayor and reading a bunch of Christmas books sounded like way too much work after all the hiking around they had done already, and so soon after being sick - plus now that they knew they had twenty-six whole days until Christmas their mission felt a lot less urgent. They were stuffed so full of cookies that they didn't bother to try and steal any food for dinner, they just trudged slowly back to the treehouse, bemoaning the fact that they'd chosen to walk instead of taking the tub.


	5. Chapter 5

Barrel was awoken the next morning by his rumbling stomach - perhaps skipping dinner the night before had been a mistake. He rolled out of the wadded up bunch of blankets and pillows that served as his bed and went to see if Lock and Shock were awake yet, but they were both still fast asleep: Shock slept snuggled up in a little cocoon of blankets that formed sort of a nest contained within a large, patched-up inner tube, and Lock sprawled out on top of his ratty old mattress on the floor with his blankets all kicked aside. Then Barrel noticed one of Sally's Christmas cookies on the floor right next to Lock. It was slightly squished, but it still looked perfectly edible to Barrel so he snuck carefully over to try and take it without waking up Lock… but right when he was about to grab it his stomach let out an enormous growl and Lock's eyes popped open. Barrel only saw the briefest flash of yellow before Lock had sprung from his mattress and bowled him right over. "What do you think you're doing, gut-bucket?!" Lock shouted as he pinned his younger cohort to the floor, but Barrel kicked him with one stumpy foot, knocking the wind out of him and he fell to the side, clutching his stomach.

"Where'd you get another cookie?!" Barrel yelled back, scrambling to his feet and preparing for a fight.

"From yesterday, stupid, where'd you think?" Lock hissed, still on his side on the floor.

"Well you should share it!" Barrel insisted, searching for the cookie… but then he found it, crushed to bits on the floor. Apparently Lock had somehow landed on it when he leapt out of bed. "Oh good job, you ruined it!" he shouted in frustration as Lock slowly got to his feet, flicking his tail threateningly.

"Now you're gonna get it, runt…" he growled, but then he was nearly knocked over again when Shock suddenly appeared and hit him in the back with a pillow.

"What are you two morons yelling about?" she asked irritably. All of their shouting had woken her up from a great dream, one where she was in charge and Oogie and the boys had to do whatever she said.

"Lock stole a cookie from yesterday and didn't even share it!"

"Like you weren't just about to steal it and eat it for yourself, fatty!" sneered Lock, reaching for another pillow to hit Shock with, but she hit him again before he could grab it so he just tackled her instead. Barrel dog-piled on top of both of them and a three-way wrestling match ensued for several minutes until Barrel's stomach rumbled violently again and he disentangled himself from the pile.

"Let's eat breakfast, I'm super hungry!" he yelled loud enough so that Lock and Shock could hear him over their continued scuffling.

"Good idea," said Lock, giving Shock one final slap with his tail, and she gave him one final punch in the arm before they broke apart as if nothing had even happened - the lure of food was greater than continuing to fight. Barrel looked sadly at the crumbled cookie as Shock collected what was left of it into her palms.

"We'll put it in the traps," she said. "Maybe we'll catch some rats with it." Barrel just sighed and followed his older cohorts to the kitchen. There wasn't much food in the house, they had eaten all of the good soup when they were sick and they'd finished off almost all the rest of their food at breakfast yesterday. Shock opened the cupboard to find nothing but a jar of dried beetles and one sad, limp mandrake root, so instead of putting the cookie crumbs in the traps they split them three ways and tried to eat them as slowly as possible while Shock boiled some water and made a sad, bland soup out of the beetles and mandrake. It was a truly pathetic breakfast but it would give them just barely enough energy to steal something better when they got to town. They emptied last night's traps down the chute, put on their masks and grabbed their slingshots, and then headed through the trapdoor and over the hill towards town.

Luckily for them stealing breakfast came easily that morning - they simply hid behind several conveniently-placed trashcans right beside the market and managed to swipe three bat-meat pastry-pies when no one was looking. The pies were large, filling and tasty and the kids felt much, much better after eating them. They went to the fountain and cupped their hands to scoop up some water to wash down their breakfast and didn't see Bertha giving them a disapproving look as she waddled past, tugging Ethan on his leash behind her and muttering something about _'vagrant children'_ under her breath. "Okay, let's go get some of those Christmas books." Shock said, and Lock rolled his eyes and curled up his lip disdainfully but she ignored him and headed towards the Town Hall anyway. Barrel followed her and eventually Lock forced himself to join them – it wasn't like he had anything better to do. They walked beneath the countdown clock - now reading twenty-six days until X-mas - and into the Town Hall where they found the Mayor perched on top of his high chair at the podium, working on some sort of paperwork. "Let's hit him in the face again," whispered Shock, but unfortunately this time the Mayor saw them before they could reach for their slingshots.

"Don't you _dare_ , you little vandals!" he warned them, but he sounded a bit nervous. He was a nervous sort of man in general but the Boogie Boys made him extra-nervous… you just never knew what they were going to do. Seeing the discomfort on his face at their arrival satisfied them for now, plus the element of surprise had been ruined so they kept their slingshots where they were and marched towards the stage. "What do you three want?" the Mayor asked them suspiciously.

"We wanna see what's in that trunk." Lock said in a very bossy voice.

"We're gonna take some books." said Shock, in a tone that suggested no room for argument.

"Jack said we could." added Barrel defiantly, and the Mayor's suspicious face got even more suspicious.

"I highly doubt that…" he said. "You little criminals probably can't even read! You're just going to destroy them, like you do everything else!"

This was truly going too far and the children bristled with indignation at such an insult. It didn't matter that most of the time he would be correct about their motives, this time they were on a mission from the Pumpkin King, didn't that stupid Mayor know anything? And to imply that they couldn't read? Shock was deeply offended, and Barrel felt embarrassed in addition to offended because it was almost true for him. Lock was offended even though he wasn't a very good reader at all, because an insult was an insult no matter how true it was.

"We can too read!" snapped Shock, and she stomped right up the stage steps and flung open the trunk to begin rifling through it, barely even looking at what she was taking. She handed whatever books were in there to Lock, and even though he hadn't wanted to take them in the first place he held out his arms to accept every one she gave him while glaring at the Mayor with a hateful expression. When Lock's arms were full she handed the rest to Barrel until there wasn't a single book left in the trunk, then she slammed it shut as hard as she could and stuck her tongue out at the Mayor before turning on her heel and stomping back down the stage stairs. The boys followed her and Barrel took just enough time to kick the Mayor's chair, but all it really did was hurt his foot.

"Get back here!" the Mayor screamed. "You can't take those!" But Shock only pushed open the door to let her cohorts through, then stuck her tongue out one last time before slamming the door shut behind them.

"I hate that stupid Mayor." Barrel grumbled, still feeling a little embarrassed about how bad he was at reading. They had climbed up onto the roof of the library, which was one of their favorite spots to hang out in town and cause trouble from above, but this time they just put the books down and sat in a circle around them to begin their research.

"We should have thrown some of these books at his stupid, two-faced head." muttered Lock, now seriously regretting not hitting him with his slingshot.

"We'll get him back later, we know where he lives." said Shock, cracking open the book on the top of the pile. "We have all those new firecrackers, we should break in and blow up his toilet." That got some evil laughter out of them and they felt much better imagining how mad that would make him - and it would be even better if they could figure out a way to make it blow up while he was actually sitting on it. Shock's book was called _'A Christmas Carol'_ , which sounded boring but the very first line was about someone dying so she was instantly intrigued. It wasn't too bad, actually. A lot of the words were hard and she had to read most of the sentences several times, but there were ghosts in it - she especially liked Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come - so it was worth plowing through even though it got really sappy towards the end. But it didn't have anything about Sandy Claws in it, so it wasn't very helpful for their mission. Barrel sorted through all the books trying to find one that looked interesting and not too hard and he settled on _'The Polar Express'_ because it had a train on the cover and trains weren't too bad because they could kill pretty much anything that got in their way. But when he opened it up it had a lot more words than he'd been hoping. He couldn't read as good as Shock but he didn't want to look as dumb as Lock so he tried anyway, mouthing the words as he tried to sound them out and sometimes even saying them quietly out loud. "You want some help?" Shock asked him, and Barrel nodded and scooted over closer to her so she could look over his shoulder and guide him. Lock was laying on his back staring at the dreary sky and trying to project an air of boredom, like he was too cool for all of this but soon he just got bored for real. He sighed loudly and rolled over onto his stomach and shoved the books around apathetically, looking for something with good pictures… but everything looked sappy and stupid to him until he saw one with a bright red cover and a green monster on it. That looked potentially promising so he took it and opened it up, still trying to look uninterested. The drawings were actually kind of fun and he thought he got the general idea of the plot from the pictures. Things were going pretty well with the green monster stealing everything from all the other little monsters… but then it was ruined when he brought all their Christmas stuff back and everyone stood around and held hands and sang a song - a stupid song, no doubt. He threw it aside and rolled onto his back again, sighing loudly and obnoxiously. "You could sit over here and start learning how to read if you're so bored," said Shock, not looking up from her and Barrel's book.

"Reading is dumb." he sneered.

"Looks to me like the only dumb thing here is you." she said snarkily, and Barrel snickered. Lock actually felt a bit embarrassed by that despite himself and his face got a little red. It was aggravating enough that Shock was better at something than him, but having it called out that even stupid little Barrel knew how to do something that he couldn't was intolerable… and even though reading was for nerdy wimps, he hated to be the only one of them who wasn't good at something.

"Fine, just so you two losers aren't the only nerds in Halloween Town." he said as he scooted towards them, still trying to seem cool but Shock just rolled her eyes. They spent the morning reading and by the time it was lunchtime Barrel was feeling pretty good about how well he'd done. Lock on the other hand was feeling increasingly frustrated by how difficult it was, but he didn't want to show it and risk getting mocked again so he managed to just barely keep his temper in check. "I'm starving." he announced when he was on the verge of throwing _'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'_ right off of the roof. Plus it was true.

"Me too." said Barrel and Shock agreed, so they left their books and climbed back down the back stairs of the building and went back to the market to see what looked appealing and easy to swipe. Ludmilla the lagoon monster was underneath one of the market stall canopies, sitting in a large cauldron of water and reading the newspaper while selling some pike and piranha chowder. The chowder looked and smelled delicious and the kids began formulating their plan.

"What if we make the canopy fall down on top of her? Then she won't be able to see us steal some! Plus, it'd be funny." Lock said excitedly.

"How are we gonna do that?" puzzled Barrel.

"Easy." said Shock. Her quick mind had started working it out as soon as Lock had suggested it. "You climb up on the roof to untie the canopy, then drop it down on her. Use my knife if you need to." She pulled a small knife from the pocket of her dress and handed it to him, then she looked at Lock. "Then you hold the canopy down on her so she can't throw it off, long enough for me to swipe a bucket and beat it, then you two meet me in the usual spot. Got it?" The boys nodded and Barrel went to climb up the fire-escape while Shock and Lock snuck around the back of the market, Lock on the side closest to the cauldron and Shock on the side closest to the food. They poked their heads around the wall and looked up at the canopy for several minutes, waiting for any sign that Barrel had gotten it untied and preparing to spring into action… but then things went terribly wrong: the canopy did indeed fall, but unfortunately, so did Barrel. He had leaned over too far off the roof trying to untie the canopy and had toppled over into it like it was a hammock and dropped like a rock right into the cauldron and on top of their victim. He landed with a yelp and a splash, and the lagoon monster swore angrily and tried to shove the canopy and the small ghoul contained within it off of her. Lock and Shock looked at one another for only a split-second then ran into position fast as they could, still hoping to get their lunch. Lock tried to keep the canopy where it needed to be, but it was no use - Ludmilla managed to break free from it and reached out one long, scaly, webbed hand and snatched Shock by the arm just as she was trying to make her getaway. Half of the soup sloshed onto the ground as the little witch was yanked backwards and nearly dropped the bucket. At that point, Lock decided it was every man for himself and took off running, but unfortunately he wasn't looking where he was going and he ran right into a pair of very tall, very thin bony legs and fell on his backside, bending his tail uncomfortably. He looked up into the unimpressed face of Jack Skellington and his heart sank - they were busted.

"Well now," said Jack, sounding just as unimpressed as he looked. "It looks like you three have an apology to make and some work to do." Lock sighed heavily and stood up, rubbing his poor tail as Ludmilla plucked a spluttering and soaking-wet Barrel out of her cauldron and dropped him on the ground.

"It was an accident!" Barrel tried. "I just fell off the roof."

"I'm sure that you did. But that does not explain why Shock has half a bucket of soup and why the other half is spilled on the ground. I assume that you did not pay for it."

"No," Shock grumbled. She couldn't think of any way to talk them out of this one so it was better to just confess and hope for a lighter punishment. "We just wanted some lunch."

"Clearly…" the sea creature said acidly, glaring at the three of them with her bulging yellow eyes and Lock couldn't help sticking his tongue out at her when Jack wasn't looking.

"I want you to apologize to Ludmilla, and then it is up to her to decide what you must do in order to work off your debt."

"Can we eat lunch first?" asked Barrel, wringing the water out of his costume as best he could. He was just so hungry.

"I suppose so." said Jack. "You have fifteen minutes to eat, and then - work." The children groaned but lined up to accept the bowls of chowder that Ludmilla begrudgingly ladled out for them, and somehow it just didn't taste as good as it would have before getting caught. Once they had finished they trudged back over to her and Shock said:

"Well. What do we have to do?"

"To work off your stupid soup." said Lock.

"That didn't even taste that good…" muttered Barrel, and the lagoon monster gave them a nasty look.

"Follow me." she said, then slithered her way to the back of the market stall and into the kitchen and the children trailed along sulkily behind her. The kitchen was full of dirty dishes - huge cauldrons full of caked-on, dried (and some burned) chowder, stacks and stacks of bowls from patrons and barrel upon barrel of stinky, rotten fish bones and guts. "You're going to clean all of this up." she said firmly, and the children's jaws dropped at the sheer quantity of work they were being expected to do. Just for three lousy bowls and one half-spilled bucket of chowder? There was truly no justice in the world, they decided.

"Oh come on!" said Lock. "You can't be serious!" But Ludmilla just stared at him unflinchingly and unsympathetically so he stomped over to the sink and started filling it up, muttering angrily under his breath. It took several hours for them to wash all of the dishes, dry them and stack them where they belonged, but the worst part was dragging the barrels full of fish scraps out to empty them down the deep, nearly bottomless pit. They were heavy and slippery from spilled-over fish guts and the three of them had to work together just to move one at a time. Then they accidentally tipped one of them over and had to clean all of that up, too. Finally, they had to mop the entire floor of the kitchen before Ludmilla was satisfied.

"Well that was a waste of an afternoon! We didn't even get through all of the Christmas books." Shock said angrily, trying to wipe the last bits of rotten fish guts off of her dress.

"Who cares about stupid old books!" Lock grumbled. They were going to smell like fish for days.

"Do you want to screw up again or do you want to catch Sandy Claws right?" she snapped back at him.

"It was Barrel's fault anyway!" Lock snarled, changing the subject. "If he wasn't such a klutz, we wouldn't have gotten caught!"

"It's not my fault!" pouted Barrel, wiping his fishy hands on his still-damp pants. "It was a dumb idea!" Lock was about to argue, but then a tall shadow loomed over the three of them and he shut his mouth.

"What are you kids going to eat for dinner tonight?" asked Jack, sounding matter-of-fact when inside he was a bit concerned. It seemed like the amount of food they'd been stealing had increased lately. Sure, they were growing children, but he wondered if Oogie wasn't feeding them as much anymore.

"We don't have anything." said Barrel without even thinking, and Shock smacked him in the arm.

"We're fine!" snapped Lock, crossing his arms defiantly.

Jack raised one bony brow, then said. "Well, lucky for you, you worked off more than you owed so Ludmilla actually owes you another bucket of chowder." It wasn't really true, Jack would just pay for the extra soup but he didn't want them going hungry tonight and a whole bucket of chowder should last them a few days at least.

"WHAT?!" Lock shouted in disbelief.

"You made us work longer than we had to?" Shock said angrily. Barrel only frowned at Jack as hard as he could but he wasn't as mad as the other two seemed to be - having to do extra work was annoying for sure, but at least they were getting some good food out of it.

"Those are the consequences of stealing." Jack said lightly. "Now, go get your soup and behave yourselves." He strode away, wanting to remind them of their task of catching Sandy Claws but he thought now was not the right time when they were mad at him and covered with smelly fish guts. He saw them stomp over to pick up their bucket of chowder and he couldn't help chuckling a bit to himself at their angry little faces, wondering if they would ever learn to stop stealing and just accept the allowance he had offered them.

The trio didn't even bother to retrieve the Christmas books from the library roof, they just wanted to get the fishy grossness off of themselves as soon as possible so they headed for home, taking turns carrying the heavy bucket and being careful not to spill any. They put the soup in the ice box and drew straws to determine who got to take a bath first - Barrel actually won the draw but Lock and Shock decided that since he was the one who messed up it was only fair for him to go last, so Shock won between the two of them. "Hurry up!" Lock shouted after her as she retrieved her pajamas from her room and headed for the bathroom. He and Barrel were standing stock-still in the middle of the living room trying not to get fish slime on anything, but it was just too boring so they carefully walked over to grab some chalk and started drawing pictures of that stupid sea creature dying in horrible ways all over the wall. Lock finally got his turn in the bath and then at last Barrel, and by the time he was through it was dark and time for dinner. They hung all of their stinky clothes outside - they would wash them tomorrow - then they heated up some more chowder and sat down to watch the busted-up, barely-working T.V. for awhile. They were so exhausted from all their hard work that they fell asleep right where they were sitting with the T.V. still on, ending up in a snoring, drooling pile on the ratty old sofa with their spoons and empty bowls strewn about the floor beneath them.


	6. Chapter 6

***author note* - There is brief mention of killing small animals for food in this chapter. The reality is that these kids have to eat, and I imagine that they know how to do this themselves. I did just mention it quickly and it's not drawn out or graphic, but just a heads-up if you're especially sensitive to that.**

Shock woke up rather later in the morning than she usually did - they had been so exhausted that she didn't even remember falling asleep on the couch the other night - and the only reason she even woke up now was because Lock's tail brushed against her face. He had fallen asleep sprawled on his stomach like usual, with one arm and leg hanging off the side of the sofa. Shock had fallen asleep on her side and somehow ended up using his butt as a pillow, and now his tail was draped over her shoulder and twitching a bit - clearly he was dreaming. When she realized where her head was she pulled a face and quickly sat up. "Ew," she muttered out loud, and he stirred a bit at her sudden movement. Barrel was using her butt as a pillow as well, laying on his back and crammed in-between her legs and the back of the sofa with his feet up on the arm of the couch, snoring softly. Shock wriggled free and Barrel didn't even react when his head slid off of her butt and hit the sofa. She swung her feet over and onto the floor, then cursed loudly when she stepped on one of their empty bowls. Lock startled and woke up right away, but Barrel only murmured a bit in his sleep and rolled over onto his side.

"What's your problem?" Lock muttered and snuggled back down into the cushions when he realized that it wasn't actually an emergency.

"I stepped on your stupid soup bowl."

"How'd you know it was mine?" He closed his eyes again.

"Because your only purpose in life is to annoy me."

Lock smiled a bit wickedly at that and chuckled. "You wish. I have way better things to do then pay any attention to you." Shock considered smacking him for that, but it would probably give him too much satisfaction so she just snorted and turned off the T.V. before heading to the bathroom. When she got to the kitchen she opened up the cupboards and remembered that they didn't have any food except for the leftover chowder, which didn't sound particularly appealing first thing in the morning… although it would be better than going hungry. She sighed and went to go check the traps - maybe they'd gotten lucky and caught something other than bugs. By then Lock was sitting up on the sofa and stretching. "What's for breakfast?" he asked, scratching himself a few times through his red pajama pants and white t-shirt.

Shock glared at him. He was so lazy, always trying to smooth-talk her into doing all the cooking and Barrel all the cleaning, though they were able to strong-arm him into helping with the cleaning, at least… and when she really thought about it, she probably wouldn't want to eat anything he'd manage to cook anyway. It was still annoying, though. "Same nothing we had yesterday, unless you want soup again." she said, and he frowned a bit and stood up, then made his way to the bathroom. She knelt down and pulled the loose board off of the wall where they hid several of their many traps. Jackpot! In addition to several roaches they had caught a very large, very fat rat that would be perfect to cook up for breakfast, it just needed a little seasoning and maybe a vegetable. She picked up the traps and headed back to the kitchen, but first she stopped at the sofa and kicked Barrel in the shoulder. "Wake up, lazy!" she shouted, this time loud enough that he woke up.

"What?" he mumbled, looking at her groggily.

"Get up and go outside and get a pumpkin. And get some henbane or whatever other herbs are growing out there. And take Lock with you. I'm gonna cook this rat for breakfast."

"I'm not even dressed - our clothes are still all fishy!" He looked down at his grey-striped pajamas.

"You wanna eat or not?"

That got him up and off the sofa just as Lock came back from the bathroom. They grabbed a beat-up old basket and headed into the cage elevator and down through the trap door to go do some foraging while Shock started boiling a big pot of water to wash their fishy clothes with. Then she opened up the trap with the rat and quick as a flash she grabbed it by it's long, naked tail before it could bite her and smacked it hard against the wall, killing it instantly. She skinned, boned and gutted it, then put it in the icebox and took the hot water off the stove and carefully put it on the floor, then sprinkled in some cleaning potion until it got all sudsy. They didn't use cleaning stuff very often at all, but there were times when it was definitely good to have around - when washing off stinky rotten fish guts, for instance. She pulled the clothes line in and dropped all of their costumes into the wash water, then scrubbed her own dress clean. She drew the line at washing all of them - the boys could wash their own clothes, thank you very much. She hung her dress back out on the line to dry and then collected all of the other traps, lit the ceremonial candles, and sent all of the bug offerings down the chute to Oogie Boogie while she waited for the boys to get back. Finally they returned, Lock carrying a medium-sized pumpkin and Barrel holding the basket full of herbs. "Guess what? We found some snake eggs, too!" Barrel said happily, plopping the basket on the kitchen table.

"Nice work, pipsqueaks!" she said, rifling through the basket to see what else they'd found. "Cut that pumpkin up." she ordered Lock, and he furrowed his brow at her.

"You're so bossy." he grumbled, but he put the pumpkin on the floor and pulled a hatchet out of the wall to start hacking it into manageable pieces. Barrel saw the wash basin and scrubbed his costume clean, then stood on his tiptoes to hang it on the line while Shock started cooking up the rat and some of the pumpkin once Lock had chopped enough for one meal. She finished a rather impressive snake egg omelette with rat, pumpkin and herbs by the time Lock had finished washing his costume and he and Barrel had dumped the dirty wash water down the tub.

"What are we going to do today?" asked Barrel with his mouth full as they sat on the couch and ate their omelettes. Just then he remembered that there was still a candy bar underneath the sofa and he made a mental note to eat it later when the other two weren't around.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of being hungry and I don't wanna get caught stealing again anytime soon, so we should find some more food and stock up." said Lock, and while Shock didn't really like the idea of putting off their Sandy-Claws-capture research she had to agree that living hand-to-mouth the last few days had been the pits. The problem was that their clothes were still wet and out on the line, and unlikely to get dry anytime soon because it was a rather bleak and cool day and the orange sun was hidden behind heavy grey clouds. As if he'd read her mind, Lock said casually, "We still have twenty-five days till Christmas, quit worrying."

"I'm not worrying." she lied, and they finished up their breakfast and did the dishes before flipping the T.V. back on and trying to find something to do that wouldn't get their pajamas too messed up. Lock settled for sharpening his knife collection while Barrel continued constructing the evil-looking mask he'd been working on and Shock practiced her sewing - she'd swiped various fabric scraps from town and was trying to put them all together into a creepy doll, but it was slow-going without any pattern to follow. She thought that maybe once she got a little better at it she might try to make a pretty patchwork dress like Sally's, and maybe even a new hat if she could find and steal the right kind of stiff fabric that would stand up on its own.

"Christmas Town looks better than that stupid place that made us sick was." said Barrel after a while, threading a string through the holes in his mask.

"How do you know?" scoffed Lock. "Did you go there in the middle of the night when me and Shock were sleeping or something?" he said sarcastically, then flung one of his knives at the target on the wall to see how well it would stick and how good his aim was. "Because it was in that book with the train that I read. It still looks dumb, just not _as_ dumb."

"If you say so." Lock threw another knife at the target and got it even closer to the middle than the first knife. He was really getting good at knife-throwing, he thought proudly to himself.

"It didn't have any of those really ugly, light, soft pinky-greeny-yellow colors." Barrel continued, then he bit off the loose end of his mask thread and finished up the knot. "It was mostly blue and white, with some green. And red."

"Still sounds ugly to me." said Lock, throwing the next knife into the ceiling.

"You like red." said Shock. "And nice job, dummy. How are you gonna get that down?"

Lock just shrugged. "Mind your own business."

Shock rolled her eyes. "Anyway, there were drawings of Sandy Claws in that book and he doesn't look anything like whoever we captured so no wonder Jack thinks we're all stupid. He's just a big, fat old man with a big white beard."

"Yeah, he didn't look too scary." said Barrel, now holding up his finished mask to admire it.

"Who thought he'd be scary in the first place? You're such a baby." Lock snickered, though he was secretly glad to hear this more detailed description of their target. How hard could it be to bag some old fat guy?

"Still," Shock cautioned, "Better safe than sorry. If Jack wants to catch him he must be powerful no matter how dumb he looks. And it seemed like in the book that he might be magic, so we need to be careful." While kidnapping Not-Sandy-Claws had been fun, bringing the wrong holiday leader to Jack had embarrassed her deeply and there was no way she was making that mistake again - nor was she going to let these stupid boys (especially Lock) talk her into doing anything dumb like that again.

"Yeah, what if he turns us into one of those snowman things?" said Barrel with wide eyes. He'd looked at a book called _'The Snowman'_ and even though it didn't have any words, it was about some living, walking monster made out of the white stuff on the ground and it had eventually melted into nothing - Barrel didn't want the same thing to happen to him and his cohorts. Lock had to agree that sounded pretty terrifying so he kept his mouth shut. Maybe being a little more prepared instead of just plowing ahead recklessly wasn't such a bad idea after all.

The morning and afternoon passed in much the same way, chatting about this and that, watching T.V. while working on their indoor projects and occasionally checking the clothesline to see if their costumes were dry yet. Then Lock tried to get his knife out of the ceiling, but didn't have much success. First he tried jumping off of the sofa several times as high as he could, but he still couldn't reach. Then he took two other knives and tried to use them to climb up the wall like he was mountaineering, but it was precarious and once he finally got to the top of the wall he was stuck - he couldn't defy gravity and stab his way along the ceiling while hanging from the knives, they would just slip out. So then he leapt away from the top of the wall like a flying squirrel and made a wild grab for the knife but missed and fell face-first into the side of the sofa, giving himself a black eye. Shock and Barrel laughed hysterically, holding their stomachs and pointing at their friend as he sat up, holding one hand over his eye and grimacing. "You're such an idiot!" Shock cackled, and Lock bared his pointy teeth angrily and lunged at her, starting another fight while Barrel just pointed and laughed at the both of them. By the time they were worn out Shock had a black eye as well and they both had plenty of bruises and scratches. When Shock finally shoved him off of her she saw a 3-inch long tear in the hem of her lavender nightdress. "You ripped my pajamas, you turd!" she shouted, and picked up the brand new mask Barrel had made and threw it at Lock.

Barrel stopped laughing. "Hey!" he said, then scrambled over to retrieve his mask and check it for damage. It seemed to be okay, but he still frowned at Shock and then picked up her partially-constructed doll and threw it across the room, unraveling almost the whole spool of thread attached to it. "How do _you_ like it, huh?" he grumbled at her. She was pretty tired from her fight with Lock but that made her mad enough to attack Barrel anyway. She stuck two of her fingers right up his upturned nose and yanked his ear with her other hand and he yelped in pain and grabbed her long, wiry hair and started pulling. Not wanting to miss out on the action, Lock rallied his energy to join the fray and the three of them wrestled around for another few minutes until everyone was completely exhausted and rolled onto their backs on the floor, panting for breath. "I'm ready for lunch." said Barrel after a few minutes, staring up at Lock's knife in the ceiling and wondering if he would ever figure out a way to get it down.

"You know where the kitchen is." Shock said irritably, and Lock snickered a bit. Barrel was disappointed, he had really hoped to convince her to go heat up some of the chowder but clearly she wasn't interested in doing that - and he wasn't good at charming and manipulating people into doing what he wanted like Lock was so he just sighed and turned his head to the side. Then he brightened up: he was within reach of the candy bar under the sofa! He checked to make sure that the other two weren't looking before he tried to subtly reach his arm under the couch to take it, but once he actually had it in hand he didn't know what to do next. Surely they would notice if he started unwrapping and eating it, and not only would they either make him share it or take it away from him completely, but they'd beat him up for not telling them about it. He lay there pondering this conundrum for several minutes but then he heard Shock start to snore softly. Barrel snored all the time, but Shock only snored if she fell asleep on her back. Barrel listened carefully - Lock hadn't shoved her or started making fun of her - in fact, he hadn't moved or made any sound at all for several minutes so that could only mean he'd fallen asleep, too. His moment had arrived and Barrel happily ate the candy bar and threw the wrapper back under the couch before letting himself doze off as well.

They woke up from their nap in the evening just as it was barely starting to get dark. They checked their clothes on the line and decided that while they were still damp, they were at least dry enough to wear for a little while to go look for some more food before it got too dark to see properly. They got dressed and brought a lantern and matches with them since there wasn't a full moon tonight to light their way once the sun set, and they each grabbed their slingshots, a net, several sacks and baskets and headed down the trap door to see what they could scrounge up. It was a fairly successful venture: Lock whooped in triumph when he managed to shoot a raven and an owl out of the sky with his slingshot, then he quickly broke their necks and stuffed them into his sack before using the net to catch five bats and a plethora of moths. Barrel collected many slugs and lizards, and even found another clutch of snake eggs and an absolutely enormous tarantula. Shock had filled up one basket with mushrooms and a variety of herbs, and another with various roots and tubers. Then she and Barrel picked several more pumpkins while Lock shimmied up a tree and collected half-a-dozen crows eggs. Finally they had as much as they could carry or drag along behind them so Shock lit the lantern and they made their way back home. While she was the best at actually cooking a decent meal they all knew how to work together to get the food put away so it wouldn't rot too quickly. The eggs, mushrooms, pumpkins and tubers could just be stored in the cupboard, and Shock boiled the slugs and put the moths in a jar while Barrel knocked the bats, lizards and tarantula on the head to kill them. Meanwhile Lock got some wood chips burning in the oven and started plucking the feathers from the owl and raven. They put the herbs, tarantula and boiled slugs in the icebox with the chowder, the jar of moths in the cupboard next to the tubers and pumpkin, and then Lock and Shock sliced the owl and raven meat into thin strips to smoke in the oven along with the whole bats and lizards. Barrel watched them carefully - he was still learning how to prepare meat and use the oven properly. They were all quite hungry by the time they were done and the delicious smell of the meat smoking in the oven made their tummies growl. Shock fried up some mushrooms and bloodroot with some of the slugs and a little bit of hemlock for flavoring, then they all changed back into their pajamas and hung their costumes out to finish drying before sitting down to eat dinner and watch the nightly horror show on T.V.

"Our clothes should be dry tomorrow and now that we have plenty of food, we need to get back to business." said Shock between bites. "We gotta get those books we left on the roof and finish reading them."

"You're right." said Lock, and Shock was surprised he actually agreed with her. "We're gonna show Jack that we know how to get the job done right. Nobody's as good as us Boogie Boys!" He grinned evilly at her and she grinned evilly back.

"Stop talking, I like this part." said Barrel. Lock threw one of his fried slugs at him but Barrel only picked it out of his lap and ate it, his eyes never leaving the screen. It was late into the night by the time they were all sleepy and Lock forced himself to check on the smoking meat one last time while Shock and Barrel went to bed - it looked like it would be fine until morning so he closed the oven door again and went to his own room and flopped down on top of his mattress, yawning loudly. He wasn't really looking forward to doing more reading, but even though he had been getting frustrated with it the day before he thought that surely it would start coming to him easier next time - after all, if Barrel could do it, so could he. And he'd meant what he said to Shock about showing Jack how good they were at doing top-secret, top-priority missions. Their pride was on the line, not to mention their reputation, and few things meant more to Lock than his pride and reputation. He fell asleep thinking about how pleased Jack would be when they brought that fat old man back to him, how everyone in the town would admire them and tell them how important and clever and crafty they were, and how Oogie Boogie would reward them and be extra nice to them… and everything would be perfect.


	7. Chapter 7

****Author note** Warning, there is an incident of physical (not to mention psychological) child abuse in this chapter. :(**

Lock was awoken out of a fantastic dream (where they blew up the Mayor's entire house instead of just his toilet) by someone roughly shaking his shoulder. "Wake up!" Shock hissed, and he opened his eyes to find her fully dressed and kneeling on the floor next to his mattress, her face uneasy. Judging by the light streaming through the broken window Lock would have guessed it was early afternoon.

"What time is it?" he said groggily, and Shock looked even more uneasy.

"It's super late, you've been sleeping forever and Oogie Boogie wants to see us."

He bolted upright at that, now instantly wide-awake. "When?!"

"Just now." she said, tossing his costume at him. "I took your clothes off the line."

"How did he sound?" Lock asked anxiously, yanking off his t-shirt and putting on his red long-sleeved one.

"He seemed to be in a good mood." she answered, and he relaxed a little. With Oogie Boogie, you never knew quite what to expect.

"Get out of here, I gotta put my pants on."

"Gladly, I definitely don't want to see that." she snorted, then stood up and left his room but not before Lock threw a wadded up sock at her back. When he got his pants and shoes on he found his cohorts both waiting by the cage elevator. He knew he didn't have any time to waste but he grabbed one of the smoked lizards out of the oven to eat as fast as he could on the way down into the pit and he just barely finished swallowing it as the cage came to a stop right in front of the entrance to the Boogie Man's lair. The three of them looked at one another for just a moment, then pushed through the saloon-style doors to see what their master wanted. They entered the large, dark, circular room with their heads bowed and when they got to the foot of the chair where Oogie was sitting they knelt on the ground and bowed even lower.

"Get on up here, kiddos." he said, and his voice was quite friendly so the children stood and smiled up at him, waiting to hear what their mission was and hoping it would be something fun. "Well, well, what happened to you, princess? And you?" he pointed to Shock and Lock's matching black eyes then looked at Barrel. "Beatin' up both your friends, huh? Pretty impressive, little man."

Barrel giggled. "No, Lock fell on the couch and then he punched Shock." Lock and Shock looked at one another and giggled, too. It did seem pretty funny in hindsight.

Oogie chuckled, but then his expression turned serious. "Now then, a little bat told me that you three went hunting and didn't even send anything down to ol' Oogie Boogie." He raised one brow disapprovingly and the children immediately sobered up - this was _not_ a good turn in the conversation. They'd sent him down the bugs every day as usual but they'd kept the last few larger animals they had caught for themselves… and apparently he'd somehow found out about it and wasn't pleased.

Nobody said anything for an awkward moment until Lock finally spoke up: "Sorry, we were just hungry. We didn't have any food." He spoke quietly, unable to make eye-contact as Oogie Boogie leaned down right next to all three of their nervous little faces, huge and intimidating and more than a little angry.

"You think the _Boogie Man_ doesn't need any food? You want ol' Oogie Boogie to go hungry, too?" he said in a deep, sinister voice and before the trick-or-treaters could deny this accusation he smacked Lock hard across the face, splitting his lip right open and knocking him off his feet backwards into the pedestal at the center of the roulette wheel, just barely missing the sharp spikes. Shock and Barrel flinched but didn't move - they had learned the hard way that if they went to one another's aid then they would get beat up next. "Well, do ya'!?" he boomed, now leaning even closer and they could smell his rancid breath seeping through the burlap. They both shook their heads furiously and Lock managed to shake his head along with them from the floor, holding one hand to his bleeding lip and the other against his back where he had hit the pedestal. Then Oogie brought one hand underneath Shock's chin, tilting her head up and forcing her to look at him and she could feel the bugs squirming around beneath the course fabric. "You tellin' me I don't take good care of you?" She wanted to shake her head no, but he was gripping her jaw too tightly. Then he looked right at Barrel. "Well, are ya'?"

"No." whispered Barrel, shaking his head even harder and forcing himself to glance up into the terrifying black shadows of the Boogie Man's eyes.

"You take good care of us." Shock managed to mumble.

He looked satisfied at that and let go of her face and leaned back into his chair again. "That's good, because I got somethin' for you." He looked over at Lock, who still hadn't moved from where he had landed. "Go on over and get it, since you're so good at gettin' food." and he pointed to a dark corner of the lair. Lock got slowly and unsteadily to his feet, then rushed as quickly as he could to where the Boogie Man was pointing and found a big cauldron of stew. It wasn't the extra-delicious, really special snake-and-spider stew, but it still looked and smelled good - pretty much everything Oogie Boogie cooked was good. He tried to drag it out of the corner but it was too heavy and Oogie laughed, "Go and give him a hand." Shock and Barrel immediately ran to help, trying not to look at the blood trickling from Lock's split lip down his chin. Blood was cool, but not when it was coming out of one of them because of being punished. Once they got the cauldron moved in front of Oogie's chair he produced three smaller buckets and handed them out to the children, which they knew was their invitation to start scooping up the stew and carrying it back up to their treehouse. It took them quite a few trips to empty the stew from Oogie's cauldron into one of their own upstairs, and once they were finished and had put their buckets back on the floor around his chair he brought out a pack of cards. "Let's have a game, hmm? The Boogie Man gets lonely down here without his little henchmen." he said in a jovial voice, and the ground seemed to quake a bit as he waddled heavily over to the card table to deal out a game of poker. The kids relaxed a bit - it seemed that punishment time was over and his mood had shifted. Oogie won the first game because they were still all too nervous to play well, but by the second round everything was going fine and they were having fun. Barrel won the game thanks in part to his excellent, grinning poker face and Oogie Boogie barked out a loud, booming laugh. "Nice one, little man! You got ol' Oogie good that time. Take a lesson from him, you two!" He dealt out a third game and Lock actually won, but mostly out of sheer luck. Oogie laughed again and Lock grinned as best he could with his sore lip. "Well, well… looks like you ain't as dumb as I thought, devil boy!" He chuckled and slapped him on the back and Lock winced in pain even though this time it was a friendly, not-too-hard smack. Oogie didn't seem to notice or care, and continued: "Let's see now… one game for me, one for Barrel and one for Lock. By my count I owe you three a little prize." He turned his gaze on Shock and said with a big smile, "Go and get it, princess!" Shock hopped off of her seat and hurried to the great big chest where Oogie usually kept any gifts for them and found it filled with candy.

"How much did we win?" she asked eagerly.

"Why the whole thing, of course! The Boogie Man ain't cheap with his little buddies and you won it fair and square!" Barrel leapt off his seat to go and see, and Lock followed him rather slowly and stiffly, then they all three grinned with excitement at the truly massive stash of all kinds of candy.

"Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" they said in unison. This much candy would last them well over a month no matter how much they ate every day. Oogie laughed and threw an enormous sack at them and they started loading it up with all of the candy. When it was full, Oogie gestured to the door and said:

"Just you remember: you send ol' Oogie Boogie what he's due and he'll take care of you. Don't you hold out on me again like that, understand?"

The three children nodded and bowed their heads again, backing out through the doors as quickly as they could while dragging the heavy sack, then went up the elevator as fast as it would go.

When they got back to the treehouse they drug the candy bag into the middle of the living room and Lock sat down gingerly on the ratty old sofa. He looked a complete mess with his black eye from hitting that same sofa and his busted lip from being hit by Oogie. "Lemmie see," said Shock quietly, and Lock let her carefully inspect his puffy face. They weren't this tender towards one another often, but all three of them knew that it could have been any one of them so they tried to take care of whoever took the fall whenever this sort of thing happened. His normally blue lips were turning purple around the nasty cut and the dark red dried blood stood out sharply against his white chin. "Go get a washrag and some ice." Shock said to Barrel over her shoulder, and he ran to do as she said. Lock winced as she slowly pulled his lips apart to check that he still had all of his teeth, and fortunately they were all accounted for. "At least he didn't knock your teeth out. Is the rest of you okay?"

"Yeah, I hit my back on the wheel, but it's not bad." he lied. Actually his back hurt quite a lot and unfortunately for him Shock had noticed the careful, stilted way he'd been moving and his near-constant grimacing since the incident and she could see right through his lie.

"Yeah right, you liar. Lemmie see that, too."

Lock rolled his eyes but let her lift up his shirt just enough that she could see the very large, ugly bruise that was blossoming over the left side of his back. Shock winced in sympathy at the horrible-looking injury and she didn't really know what she could do for it other than put some ice on it - she just hoped that he hadn't cracked any ribs. Barrel returned with a cold wet rag and a chunk of ice from the icebox and Lock hissed but didn't complain as Shock dabbed away the dried blood from his face before wrapping the chunk of ice in the rag and holding it to his lip. "Hold this here." she said.

"I know what to do." he snarled, but Shock didn't take it personally - she'd be cranky too if Oogie had knocked her around that hard.

"Go get some more ice and another rag. A dry one this time." she told Barrel, and he once again scurried to the kitchen as Lock slowly lowered himself onto his stomach on the couch, keeping the ice against his mouth. Barrel returned with the supplies and handed them to Shock, then watched sadly as she wrapped the ice in the rag and placed it gently on Lock's shirt over where the bruise was. He sucked in another harsh breath but then relaxed as the cold began to set in and he watched from the sofa as his cohorts drug the candy bag into the corner.

"You want some candy?" Barrel asked him, pulling out a lollipop for himself.

"No." Lock muffled through the ice.

"He can't feel his lips, he'll just drool anything you give him all over himself." Shock snickered, getting a chocolate bar for herself. Barrel giggled a little and Lock squinted menacingly at them, wishing he had something to throw besides his ice pack - but even if he did, it would have hurt too much to throw it anyway. He was glad he'd at least eaten that smoked lizard because even though he felt hungry he somehow didn't have much of an appetite at the moment. They switched on the T.V. and just sat in silence for awhile, Shock and Barrel sitting on the floor and finishing several pieces of candy each until Lock's ice had melted to the point where it was getting uncomfortably wet. He groaned as he rolled off the sofa while trying to move his back as little as possible and the other two watched him, making sure he was alright. Lock was too proud to let them fuss over him much, but they kept an eye on him all the same since one time Oogie had beaten him so badly that he actually passed out in the tub afterwards and they didn't realize it until Barrel had to go to the bathroom. "Go help him." Shock muttered, and Barrel put down his candy and hurried after Lock. They returned after some time with Lock now in his dry pajamas and holding a bowl of the piranha and pike chowder - he wasn't in the mood to eat the stew from Oogie Boogie no matter how good it smelled. He sat carefully back down on the couch and started eating as Barrel went back to the kitchen.

"You want some soup?" he hollered to Shock.

"Yeah." she hollered back, and Barrel stood on the footstool so he could reach the warm pot of chowder still on the stovetop and ladle the last of it into two more bowls before turning the stove off. They watched T.V. and ate in relative silence for a few hours before Shock said, "Well, so much for getting the Christmas books."

"You guys should go get them tomorrow. It's okay. Give me one of those nougat bars." said Lock, holding out one hand and Barrel and Shock looked at one another. They hated going to town with only two of them, they always worried that someone would ask where the third one of them was and nobody wanted to admit that they were at home, all beaten-up. But the books had been out there on the roof for several days and now that their mission had been indefinitely postponed thanks to Lock's injuries they felt like they had to at least do _something_ to make progress on the task that Jack had assigned them. Barrel rummaged through the candy bag until he found a nougat bar and tossed it but his aim was terrible and it landed nowhere near Lock's outstretched hand.

"Nice throw, midget." Shock teased him, and she slid across the floor to grab it and hand it to Lock since he couldn't bend down to pick it up off the floor himself. Then she scooted over to where her creepy doll project had ended up when Barrel had chucked it across the room, wound the thread back onto the spool and started to work on it for awhile - and every time she pierced the needle through the fabric she imagined it was Oogie she was stabbing. Barrel got some crayons and paper and drew pictures of terrible things happening to Oogie Boogie - but he always burned those kinds of drawings almost immediately after making them because if Oogie ever found out about them Barrel would be dead meat. Lock didn't do anything but stare listlessly at the T.V. and slowly eat his nougat bar out of the corner of his mouth, trying to avoid the cut in the center of his lower lip. They passed the time this way until dinner, when without a word Shock got up and went to the kitchen to fix up some of the tubers with ragwort and a side of salted tarantula and moths. Barrel followed her and made some belladonna tea, being sure to make Lock's extra-strong so that hopefully he would sleep better. Then they went back to the living room to bring him his food and sit back down on the floor to eat their own. They all had a few more pieces of candy before Lock announced he was going to bed, and the other two watched as he hobbled slowly and stiffly to his room. After a few more minutes they got up to wash the dishes and Shock said: "We'll go to town tomorrow and get those books. And if anyone asks any questions we'll just punch them in the nose."

Barrel nodded as he wiped the last bowl dry and put it back in the cupboard, then he lit his drawings with a match and threw them in the oven to burn before going to bed. He tossed and turned restlessly in his wad of blankets and pillows, feeling guilty because deep down he was grateful that it was Lock and not him that Oogie had hit so hard today. Lock was really tough, but Barrel still didn't like feeling this way, like he was happy that Lock had gotten it instead of himself… what kind of friend and cohort was he? He would have thought he'd be used to it by now, but he couldn't stop replaying the image of Lock getting hit in the face and knocked off his feet and then slamming into that pedestal over and over in his mind. He sighed heavily and tried to fall asleep anyway, and eventually he managed it… but his dreams were fitful and frightening. He should have made his own tea extra-strong, too.


	8. Chapter 8

Shock didn't sleep well at all that night. After Oogie Boogie had smacked Lock halfway across the room with one blow she had thought for sure that she was going to be next when he'd put his hand beneath her chin. She was relieved that it didn't happen, but she was still worried about her cohort - Lock was pretty tough, but this was one of the worst bruises Oogie had ever given any of them and she was almost positive that he must have cracked some ribs. How could he not have? And it was all her fault, if only she would have put that big rat they'd caught down Oogie's chute that morning instead of eating it for breakfast then none of this would have happened. How could she have been so careless? _'Stupid!'_ she thought angrily to herself, and she only got more angry when she found herself fighting back tears. Lock and Barrel were hopelessly dumb but she was supposed to be smarter than this, and she certainly wasn't supposed to cry. She punched her pillow a few times just to try and release some of the rage and feelings of powerlessness that were threatening to overwhelm her, equal parts guilt, anger, sadness and helplessness swirling around in her brain until she was finally too exhausted to feel anymore and fell into a restless sleep. The crow of the skeletal rooster woke her up far too early in the morning but she lay in her inner tube for at least another hour, staring at the ceiling and feeling miserable. Then she felt even more miserable when she realized that she really didn't have any right to be so miserable - if anyone deserved to feel miserable, it was Lock. On that thought she crawled out of her little blanket nest and walked to his room, then poked her head inside. "You alive?" she asked quietly. He was laying on his stomach on his mattress like usual, but he wasn't quite as sprawled out and he didn't look very relaxed.

"Barely." he mumbled, and while she was glad it seemed like she hadn't woken him up, she wondered if he had been able to sleep at all.

"You want some breakfast?"

He was quiet for a moment, then said, "Yeah."

"Okay." She went to the kitchen and fixed up some pumpkin and two of the smoked bats with some henbane, then brought it to his room. He started eating it while still laying on his stomach, and it took some effort to not drop his food off his fork - and his busted-up lip didn't help things, either. Normally Shock would have made fun of him for trying to eat his breakfast sideways, but it wasn't funny right now. Lock was generally very stoic, so if he was in this much pain then it was pretty bad. Barrel came into the room and said:

"I checked the traps and sent the bugs down. We also caught a mouse and I put it in the chute, too, so that's good. What time are we going to town?"

"Right after breakfast, I guess." she answered, then got up and left Lock to slowly eat his food and prepare some more pumpkin and bats for Barrel and herself. After they had finished eating and gotten dressed she poked her head back in Lock's room and said, "Back in awhile…" and he merely grunted in response. Then she and Barrel headed down through the trap door and over the hill towards town, feeling woefully incomplete without their middle cohort.

They arrived to find the town still bustling with activity: more decorations were being created and displayed, huge wooden crates full of all sorts of things were being pried open, big piles of boxes and rolls of wrapping paper were everywhere and construction on what looked like some sort of wooden platform had begun in the middle of the town square. It was pretty exciting and Shock and Barrel spent quite some time just wandering around looking at everything before they remembered that the whole reason they were there was to get the Christmas books from the library roof. They tried to head that direction but kept getting distracted by the various projects going on all over the place: Harlequin now had a pile of flat bats in addition to the rats and when Barrel saw him put one of them on James the saxophonist's head he realized it was a hat and that made him want one even more. Dennis the werewolf, Lucius the devil and Ethan's father Ned were all making evil-looking teddy bears and Shock wondered if stealing one and taking it apart would help her figure out how to make her creepy doll better - it couldn't hurt to try. And the vampire brothers had an assembly line of wicked-looking duck toys going and both children thought that one of them would make a nice addition to their bathroom and just might help cheer Lock up a bit. Then they saw Jack - he was practically dancing through the crowd and checking everyone's projects, offering advice and constructive criticism as well as plenty of compliments and encouragement. Barrel and Shock tried to avoid him, worried that he would ask about their mission progress but unfortunately he spotted them and strode right over before they could run or hide. Fortunately he seemed to be in quite a good mood, no doubt thanks to all the festivities.

"Where's Lock?" he asked. It was very unusual to see the trio broken up and he hoped the little devil wasn't getting up to anything _too_ destructive while out of sight.

"He's fine!" Barrel blurted out, though it really didn't answer the question.

"He's just sick." Shock lied, and Jack gave them a concerned look.

"Did he forget to take the potion Sally gave you?"

"Uh…" Barrel glanced at his older cohort, leaving it up to her to work out the details of their cover story since punching the Pumpkin King in the nose for asking questions wasn't an option.

"Yes." she said, and Jack raised a surprised brow.

"Really? He doesn't seem like the forgetful type."

"He's just an idiot." Shock said firmly, and Barrel nodded and said:

"Yeah, he's really stupid."

"He's fine, really." said Shock.

"What happened to your eye?" Jack said suspiciously.

"I just fell of the couch a few days ago, no big deal." she lied again, then turned on her sugary-sweet voice: "We really need to get back to researching how to catch Sandy Claws. Can we go now, Jack?"

"Please?" added Barrel, trying to look innocent.

Jack squinted even more suspiciously down at them, but while he was fairly certain they weren't telling him the truth he couldn't prove it and therefore he really had no valid reason to detain them. "Alright, get back to it, then. And behave yourselves!" he called after them as they scampered off.

"I want one of those hats." Barrel said once they were safely out of Jack's sight.

"And I want one of those bears." said Shock, so they made a plan to split up and each steal their desired item and meet on the library roof. Fortunately everything was so hectic and everyone was so busy and working so hard that it wasn't too difficult to accomplish their goals. Barrel swiped two hats, thinking that maybe Lock might like one, too, then hurried up to the library roof to find Shock there already with her evil teddy bear. "We should get one of those ducks, too." she said, and Barrel agreed that they were pretty neat-looking. They left the hats and bear with the books and snuck back down and headed towards the vampire's table, but then they saw Sally setting up a ragged green tent and Shock suddenly had an idea: Sally was good with potions and herbs, wasn't she? So maybe she could make something for Lock to make his back hurt less and heal faster. The problem was how to ask without admitting what it was really for, so she quickly came up with what she hoped would be a convincing lie. "C'mere," she said, grabbing Barrel by the sleeve and practically dragging him over to Sally's tent with her. "Hello, Miss Sally." she said sweetly, linking her arm with Barrel's and trying her hardest to seem innocent and polite. Barrel had no idea what they were doing talking to Sally but he just grinned and went along with it.

"Oh, hello Shock, Barrel." Sally said just as sweetly, though her sweetness was far more genuine. "How is your top-secret, top-priority mission going? Do you need more potion?"

"It's going great, and we don't need any of that potion. But we did want to ask you something." Sally nodded and Shock continued, "Well, I hit my eye on the sofa and it hurts pretty bad. We were wondering if you can make me something to help it not hurt so much. Please." Barrel glanced at Shock. Since when did she become such a wimp? It had been two days since Lock had punched her in the eye… but then he figured out what she was up to and he nodded in agreement.

"Oh, of course." Sally said kindly. "It's a bit of a trip back to my supplies at the lab, but if you don't mind the walk then I'm happy to make it for you right now." The children nodded and Sally walked a bit unsteadily out of her tent and they followed her towards Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. They didn't say much on the journey, Sally seemed quite shy and the kids didn't really know what to say to her. Shock was studying Sally's dress, trying to figure out how it was put together… and Barrel was studying the rag doll herself, trying to figure out how _she_ was put together and able to walk at all. He remembered the way one of her arms and legs came off when they'd pushed her down the stairs, and even though it was pretty funny he felt a tiny bit bad about it now. After a long walk they arrived and she led them back into the laboratory kitchen and Shock and Barrel took their same seats at the spindly-legged table. "I'm sorry I don't have any cookies for you. Would you like some spider crisps instead?" The children nodded and she took some out of the pantry, poured a bunch into a large bowl and sat it on the table in front of them then asked, "Where's Lock?"

Shock panicked a bit internally for a second - she didn't want to tell Sally that he was sick again so she came up with a different lie: "He's doing stuff for our top-secret, top-priority mission so we can't tell you."

"Sorry." added Barrel with a mouth full of spider crisps.

"Oh." Once again Sally worried about what on earth Jack could possibly have these little kids doing, but she just started collecting ingredients and mixing up something on the stove. It smelled rather foul and Shock hoped that it wasn't something that Lock was going to have to eat in order for it to work, but thankfully after awhile Sally poured it into a large jar and said, "You can spread this poultice on your eye every day, it will help the swelling go down and ease the pain a bit. It will last a long time without going bad, so I made you some extra for the next time any of you get any bumps or scratches."

Barrel wanted to say that they got bumps and scratches pretty much all the time and they weren't usually a big deal, but he didn't want to reveal the fact that Lock was in such bad shape. "Thank you, Miss Sally." he said a bit shyly. He still thought that she was awfully nice and quite pretty.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry it smells so bad, but there's really no way to avoid it." she replied with a gentle smile. "Why don't you take some spider crisps with you to share with Lock? If you think he might like them." She was aware that the children often stole food so she figured she could try to do her tiny part to make sure they didn't go hungry. Shock took the jar and Barrel took the spider crisps and they said thank you once again and hurried back to town, leaving Sally behind. Barrel was tempted to start eating the spider crisps on the way home instead of sharing them with Lock - and any other time he would have - but it didn't feel right this time. Once again they went to the library roof to add the poultice and snacks to their stash, then formulated a plot to finally get that duck toy. This heist was a bit trickier since they had all four of the vampire brothers's milky, watchful eyes to avoid, but they managed it by having Barrel pretend to accidentally knock over a stack of boxes right next to their table to cause a distraction long enough for Shock to quickly grab one of the ducks and sneak behind a nearby wall.

"We need a bag for all this stuff." she said once Barrel joined her behind the wall, so he went back out into the crowd to find one as Shock snuck up to the roof once more with their contraband duck. It took him awhile but eventually he found one that nobody seemed to be using and they put all of their illicit goods and the Christmas books into the sack and headed back to the treehouse trying to look nonchalant, like they were in fact supposed to be carrying that large sack - and fortunately everyone was too busy to notice them.

They found Lock laying on his stomach on the sofa with the T.V. on, still in his pajamas and with a half-empty mug of worm's wart tea, a bunch of candy wrappers and a half-eaten smoked lizard on the floor next to him. "I stole you a hat, look!" Barrel said happily, throwing one of the bowl-shaped rats at him. It bounced off the wall and landed on the floor but Lock was able to reach one arm from his laying position on the sofa to pick it up.

"This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen." he said, but he was smiling. He'd been feeling pretty depressed about being stuck at home while Shock and Barrel were out doing whatever they wanted, so he was secretly touched that they hadn't forgotten him.

"Whatever, I think they're cool!" Barrel said with a huge grin, putting on his own rat-hat and running to the bathroom to see how it looked in the mirror.

Shock shook her head and rolled her eyes, then set the bag full of stuff down on the floor. "Why are you on the couch instead of in bed?" she asked.

"What are you, my mom?" he answered grumpily. "I had to pee, okay? And it's boring just laying in bed, I wanted to watch T.V."

"That's fair." she conceded, then took the jar of potion out of the sack. "I got you this for your back, it'll make it hurt less."

Lock eyed it suspiciously. "Where did you get it?"

"What's it to you?"

"I'm not taking anything if I don't know what it is."

"Sally made it." Shock said, and started unscrewing the lid.

"What did you tell her?!" Lock said angrily.

"Nothing, dummy, I just told her it was for my black eye. Do you think I'm stupid or something?"

"Yes." he muttered, but relaxed a bit.

Shock couldn't wait until he was well enough that she could throttle him again, but for now she just walked over and said, "Lift up your shirt." He tried but was having trouble so she put the jar down to help him until it was up high enough that she could see the entire bruise, now even more purple and puffy and generally awful-looking than it was the day before. She scooped up some of the thick, gloopy, stinky poultice and plopped it on his back and started gently spreading it around the bruised part.

"It's cold! And it smells gross." he complained.

"Quit whining." she said unsympathetically. Honestly, she had gone through all this trouble to get it - lying and hiking all the way to the laboratory and back, and now he was being completely ungrateful. Typical. Just then Barrel came back into the room still wearing his rat-hat and looking pretty pleased with himself. "You look ridiculous." Shock said, screwing the lid back on and heading to the bathroom to wash the poultice off her hands - though she did dab a little bit on her black eye, too.

"You're just jealous because you don't have one." Barrel called after her, then opened up the bag to show Lock the other stuff they'd brought. Lock thought that the duck looked really cool - he liked the bullet holes and that it had pointy teeth like he did, and the teddy bear was pretty neat, too. Barrel grabbed two fistfuls of candy and settled on the floor on his stomach in front of the T.V., then opened up a Christmas book called _'A Visit From St. Nicholas'_ because it looked nice and short and was mostly pictures. Lock noticed him and said:

"Turn off the T.V. and read it out loud. And throw me a licorice whip." He was getting bored with watching T.V. and wanted to start working on their mission again, even if it was just listening to Barrel stumble his way through stupid Christmas books. Shock came back and sat on the floor next to her littlest friend, picking up the creepy teddy bear and starting to pull the stitches out of it to see how it was made and helping him when he got stuck on a word - which was often - while Lock provided a running commentary from the sofa the whole time:

"Who's St. Nicholas? What's a sugar-plum? What's a sash and why did he throw it up? What's a reindeer?"

Shock frowned at him from the floor. "You read that book about a reindeer, remember? The one with the red nose. Are you sure you didn't hit your head instead of your back?" Lock stuck out his tongue at her and she stuck hers out back. He remembered one about a four-legged beast with antlers and a red nose, but he wasn't a good enough reader at that point to figure out the word _'reindeer'_. Barrel ignored them and kept reading.

"Again, who the heck is this St. Nick moron? Where's Sandy Claws?" Lock said impatiently.

"I think St. Nick _is_ Sandy Claws," said Shock, looking at the illustrations. "Guess it's a nickname or something." Barrel kept reading until Lock interrupted again:

"Hang on, did that just say he stuck his finger up his nose and then flew up the chimney?"

" _A_ -side, not _in_ -side his nose! Pay attention!" Shock gritted between her teeth, getting seriously frustrated with his frequent interruptions.

"That's the dumbest magic power I've ever heard of." said Lock, and despite how annoyed she was with him right now she had to agree.

Barrel finished up the poem and said blankly, "I don't get it."

"Me either. Let's read it again and try to pick out the most important parts." Shock said, and she took the book from him to read it out loud herself, not wanting to listen to Barrel struggle his way through it a second time. When she finished they had learned that Sandy Claws rode around in a tiny sleigh full of toys with tiny flying reindeer, landed on peoples roofs and went up and down the chimneys to put a bunch of stuff in socks that people hung on their fireplace, and it also re-confirmed that he was a fat guy with a white beard. "This is the weirdest thing ever. What a stupid holiday." she said, putting the book aside.

"I dunno, free toys doesn't sound too bad." said Barrel, scooting the evil duck back and forth with his foot.

"You really want free toys from some fat old guy sneaking around your chimney?" said Lock. "You're even dumber than I thought." Barrel just shrugged. If Lock was too stubborn to accept free toys then that was his problem.

They spent the evening watching T.V. while Shock did anatomical studies on her teddy bear to compare it with her half-formed doll and Barrel absentmindedly scooted the duck around, still wearing his rat-hat and sucking on a lollipop. Lock demanded someone bring him some paper and crayons, then he set the paper on the floor and hung his arm over the side of the sofa to draw for awhile. He managed to draw a picture of Sandy Claws, but better: he gave him sharp teeth, glowing red eyes and huge, bloody claws, and instead of toys he was stuffing skulls and bombs into all the stockings. They ate some of Oogie Boogie's stew for dinner and it was the tastiest thing they'd had all week, then right before bedtime Shock got a rag and washed all the poultice off of Lock's back and pulled his shirt back down. "Did it help?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I think it kinda did. Still hurts a lot, though." he admitted. "I think I'm just gonna sleep here tonight." He struggled to reach the throw-blanket to drape it over himself so Shock grabbed it and helped him before going to blow out the ceremonial candles around Oogie's shrine while Barrel set the traps for the night. Then they headed for bed, leaving Lock alone in the living room.


	9. Chapter 9

Lock was laid up for two and a half whole weeks before his back had healed enough that he could move pretty much normally again, and by then his face had healed enough to not look suspicious anymore. It had been a very long, boring and frustrating two and a half weeks and they were all impatient to get back to trying to catch Sandy Claws - as well as to just get out of the treehouse in general. They'd read and re-read all of the Christmas books what felt like dozens of times and Lock was bored enough that he actually made a real effort and soon he felt like he was able to read just as good as Barrel, which soothed his ego a bit. The novelty of their new toys had worn off and the duck had found its way into the bathroom to live with their other, older duck toy while the teddy bear had been completely dissected and left in a corner - though Shock had plans to eventually incorporate it's fabric into her future patchwork dress. She also thought she might tear her stupid doll apart as well because it was still mostly a shapeless wad of stitched-together fabric bits even after all these weeks. She was good at the stitching part, but not the construction part. Barrel and Lock had made a game of tossing their rat-hats at the knives stuck in the walls, trying to land the hats on the knives like a ring-toss since that was something Lock could do while he was stomach-down on the couch. Barrel was so bored that he had even tried to figure out a way to get Lock's knife out of the ceiling for him - he was equally unsuccessful, but at least he didn't end up with a black eye for his efforts. He tried stacking their three chairs on top of one another to make a little tower but it was too unsteady. He'd gotten their medieval flail and tried to knock the knife loose with it, but it couldn't reach. He'd even convinced Shock to give him a boost, but even standing on her shoulders his fingertips were still several feet away from it - if Lock had been well enough to join their tower it might have worked. Lock offered unsolicited criticism and advice from the sofa the entire time but all of his ideas were just as useless and the knife stayed stubbornly in the ceiling, as if it were taunting them. "Maybe we can shoot a rocket at it?" Barrel wondered out loud, and Lock smiled wider than he had for days. He didn't really think Barrel's idea would work, but few things were as fun as firecrackers.

"Do it!" he said eagerly, and Barrel grinned excitedly and ran to the ammo supply.

"You two are so stupid, there's no way that's going to work!" Shock sneered from the corner where she was organizing and taking inventory of all the different candy types that Oogie Boogie had given them. It was really a new low for her as far as spending time went, but she was so bored she was going to go crazy if she didn't do something besides watch T.V. and read Christmas books. At least the boys and their antics at trying to retrieve the knife were entertaining, no matter how dumb their ideas were… and it wasn't like she had any better ideas herself so she let them get on with it. Barrel returned with some matches and a rocket that was really probably too large for what they were hoping to accomplish, then he knelt on the floor, closed one eye and tried to aim the rocket at the knife. Shock watched him out of the corner of her own eye and despite herself she was excited to see what would happen once Barrel shot off the rocket… then she thought about what terrible aim he had so before he could strike the match she scooted over from her neat rows of candy and said bossily, "Hang on, you can't aim to save your life. Let me do it!" She elbowed him roughly aside and grabbed the rocket herself, and Barrel thought about fighting her for the privilege of trying to blow the knife out of the ceiling but decided it wasn't worth wasting time on - he just wanted to see something blow up no matter who did it. Once she was satisfied with the way she'd positioned the rocket she looked excitedly at him and said, "Okay, light it!" Lock was so envious that it wasn't him setting off the explosive that he could hardly stand it, but he was still a wreck and he had the smelly pain-easing poultice spread all over his back. Shock had been diligently applying it to his bruise every day until he'd started teasing her about how she probably loved waiting on him hand and foot, so then she made Barrel start doing it - but not before she'd dumped a bunch of the poultice in Lock's hair, an offense that he angrily promised he would return once he was healed enough to catch her. Barrel struck the match and lit the fuse, and all three of them waited in delicious anticipation as the flame moved up the wick and then finally the rocket ignited and blasted up towards the ceiling with a tremendous cracking sound followed immediately by a piercing squeal and then a huge crash as it blew a gaping hole right through the roof. Debris rained down on them and they covered their heads with their arms, and it was only by sheer luck that none of them were hit by the larger pieces of wood that came crashing down. When the dust settled they all looked up at the destruction and broke out into hysterical laughter, convinced that it was the most hilariously entertaining thing they'd done for months.

"We're gonna have to fix the roof now." said Barrel after several minutes, wiping tears of mirth out of his eyes.

"Totally worth it!" Lock said happily. Witnessing that explosion was even worth the significant amount of pain it had caused his poor ribs from laughing so hard.

"Yeah, 'cus you're not the one who's gonna have to fix it!" said Shock as she took off her hat to shake the dust off of it, but she was still laughing, too.

"And look!" said Barrel triumphantly, holding up a fallen piece of wood with the sought-after knife sticking out of it and they all cheered.

The children enjoyed their impromptu skylight for a few days - it was fun to try and throw or slingshot rocks and pieces of bone through the hole, and once they even shot a smaller rocket through it but decided that was a waste of a rocket because once it went through the hole they couldn't see it explode or hit anything. Eventually it got a bit cloudy outside and they worried it might rain so Shock and Barrel carefully climbed up the outside ladder to the roof with a hammer, some nails, several pieces of extra sheet metal and some boards they had laying around to patch it up. Lock amused himself by continuing to shoot rocks up through the hole with his slingshot, trying to hit them as they worked and they threw the rocks and some nails back down at him so the roof-repair ended up taking several hours longer than it needed to.

On the eleventh day Lock was able to walk around fairly well again and he had tried to convince his cohorts that he was ready to go get Sandy Claws but Shock wouldn't hear of it, which led to several loud arguments. "We don't need you slowing us down and getting us caught on such an important job!" she yelled in his face, frustrated that punching him would only set them back longer.

"I'm fine!" he yelled back, wanting to tackle her to prove he was okay but he didn't because deep down inside he knew that he probably wasn't.

"Oh yeah?" she sneered, and quick as a flash she reached her arm around and poked him in the back before he could stop her. He grimaced and sucked in a harsh breath and Shock gave him a smug, angry look. "See? You're still a total mess! Go lay down, stupid, or I'll kick you in the butt so hard you'll have to stay in bed for _another_ week!"

Lock gave her the angriest, surliest look he was capable of, then turned to Barrel and shouted, "Tell her she's being an idiot. I'm fine!" But Barrel only rolled his eyes and went back to his reading. He was getting really good at it since they hadn't had much else to do. Lock got even angrier but there wasn't anything he could do about being outvoted so he went back to his room to pout. On the eighteenth day Shock was finally convinced of Lock's fitness to resume mischief-making duties and they put their heads together to plan their next move.

"Alright, here's the plan." said Lock as they finished up the last of their stew from Oogie Boogie for lunch. "First we're going to go to town to get some more food and give Jack his dumb books back just so he doesn't bug us about them. Then we'll go to Christmas Town and get Sandy!" It wasn't a very detailed plan, but then again most of Lock's plans weren't very well thought-out.

"How are we gonna do it?" asked Barrel, licking the last dregs of stew out of his bowl.

"Stuff him in the bag like we did with Not-Sandy-Claws." Lock said, as if it were obvious.

Shock raised one unimpressed eyebrow at him, but she didn't really have a better plan yet despite all their reading so she kept her mouth shut. After lunch they put on their masks, grabbed their slingshots and put all of the Christmas books into their Sandy-Claws-catching-sack and headed for town.

Things were really booming now. Just when the children thought there couldn't possibly be any more ways to decorate for Christmas someone found another thing to add. There were so many presents that it would have taken them months and months to steal them all and they wouldn't have all fit in their treehouse anyway. Lock was especially distracted since he had missed out on their last trip to town and as they passed by a stack of shrunken heads he wondered if one would fit in his slingshot and if it would explode and get brains everywhere if he shot it against a wall. He quickly snatched one and shoved it into their bag without even slowing down, fully intending to try this experiment at the soonest opportunity. They made their way towards Town Hall to return the books - Lock had changed his mind about returning them and suggested they set them on fire instead but Shock talked him out of it. "They're Jack's books and he loves Christmas so he'd probably hit you just as hard as Oogie did, you moron! Do you want to get knocked around again?" He really did _not_ want to get knocked around again anytime soon so he sighed in disappointment and they walked up the steps and under the countdown clock.

"Guys, we only have seven days left!" Barrel said nervously. He didn't want to get knocked around by Jack, either.

"It's fine, stop worrying." said Lock, completely unconcerned. Honestly, his cohorts were such a pair of worrywarts. After all, they had captured Not-Sandy-Claws in just one day, and that was going in completely blind with no information whatsoever. Now he felt like they were thoroughly prepared so there was no need to hurry or worry. The Town Hall doors were propped open since townspeople were going in and out at a fairly rapid pace and the trick-or-treaters were irritated to see that the Mayor was there, sitting at his podium. Didn't he ever go anywhere else or do anything besides paperwork and making stupid speeches? Lock suddenly had a very important decision to make: it would probably be very funny to throw the shrunken head at the Mayor, but he suspected that it probably wouldn't explode on impact and cover him with brains, which would be a disappointment… but on the other hand, if it didn't explode then there would be no harm in throwing it at him because he could just pick it up and try it against a wall later like his original plan had been. His mind made up, Lock crouched down and snuck along close to the wall and the other two followed suite even though they didn't know exactly what he had planned. Fortunately the Mayor didn't see them and right when they were in range he looked up and away from them to start talking to Lucius, and Shock and Barrel suppressed their giggles as Lock put the shrunken head in his slingshot and took aim. It soared through the air and while he didn't hit his target exactly (he'd been aiming for either one of the Mayor's faces) he did manage to knock the hat right off of the Mayor's pointy head, causing him to jump in surprise and nearly fall off his chair. "Bullseye!" Lock laughed out loud, and the other two cackled along with him as the Mayor's angry face swiveled their direction, not noticing the older devil giving the little devil a subtle wink and nod. Lucius was one of the very, _very_ few townspeople that the kids thought was sort-of-kind-of alright, so they generally didn't play _too_ many tricks on him. Once they tried lighting his cape on fire while he was wearing it but he'd merely laughed at them and snapped his fingers to make the flames disappear - that's when they'd learned that fire didn't affect grown-up devils quite the same as it did most other Halloween Town residents. About the best trick they'd managed to play on him so far was stealing his pitchfork and sticking it up in the tallest tree they could climb, and it had taken him several days to find it.

"Why, you little - !" the Mayor spluttered, clearly refraining from calling them a very nasty name. " _Now_ what do you want?!"

"Just being good citizens." Shock said sarcastically.

"Bringing back Jack's books." added Barrel with his hands on his little hips.

"You know, the ones he gave us permission to borrow." Lock said smoothly, strolling onto the stage to retrieve his shrunken head - which had regrettably not exploded. He very pointedly stepped on the brim of the hat and the Mayor bristled with anger.

"Watch where you're stepping, you little delinquent!"

Lock looked him right in the eye and stepped on the hat again, then kicked it right off the stage. "Whoops." he said in falsely-innocent voice and his cohorts laughed. The Mayor snarled viciously at them but there was nothing he could have done that would frighten them and they just marched right over to the trunk and tossed all the books back into it before heading back towards the exit. They each gave the hat one good kick as they passed it, rolling it down the aisle and practically out the Town Hall doors and the Mayor's angry muttering behind them was music to their ears.

They decided that now it was time to swipe some more food. They had finished almost all of their food at home over the last few weeks while Lock was laid up so they needed to restock - and after what had happened last time they didn't want to do any hunting too close to home. Oogie was only satisfied when they sent him living things, so if they stole already-dead food from town then they were more likely to be safe from his wrath. They were just heading towards the market when Sally's green tent caught Shock's eye once more - now there was a sewing machine set up inside the tent as well as a mannequin and a table with a large bolt of bright red fabric draped over it and a basket full of fluffy, furry white trim. The fluffy white trim was stupid, but Shock kind of liked the red fabric because it looked like blood and she decided she really wanted some of it for her future dress project. Sally was nowhere to be seen so she stopped walking and grabbed Lock by the collar and he just about fell over backwards into her. Barrel wasn't looking where he was going and walked right into her back and just about fell over, too. "What are you doing, you crazy witch!" Lock snarled, adjusting his shirt collar where it had dug into his throat.

"Shut up, I want some of that." she said, pointing to the red fabric cascading over the side of the table.

"Why?" asked Barrel, peering around her to look.

"Because I want to make a dress with it."

Lock snickered, "If you make dresses as bad as you make dolls then you're gonna be walking around naked."

Shock punched him right in the middle of his chest. "Shut up, Lock!"

"Ow!" he yelped, then punched her in the chest right back. Shock was sorely tempted to punch him in the face next, but she decided she wanted the fabric more and Sally could be back any minute so she refrained - she could always punch Lock later.

"Are you gonna help or what?" she hissed, rubbing her chest where his fist had made contact.

"I guess so." he muttered, glaring at her and rubbing his own chest. Sewing was girly, but red was a cool color and stealing was fun no matter what it was so he was game for swiping some. They told Barrel to keep watch while they snuck behind the table and Lock held their sack open while Shock pulled some of the fabric off of the table… but unfortunately she overestimated how much of the fabric was actually unrolled and when she pulled down on it too hard the entire bolt flew right off the table and hit them both in the head. Shock stumbled backwards and knocked over the mannequin, which tipped over and hit the table with a crash before rolling right onto Lock. The two little trick-or-treaters ended up in a pile of red fabric beneath the mannequin and it was a miracle that they hadn't taken the entire tent down with them. "Nice going, klutzy!" Lock shouted, and Shock grabbed a handful of the stupid white fluffy trim and shoved it right in his open mouth.

"Quit yelling, are you _trying_ get us caught?" she snarled, and Lock stopped caring that this was supposed to be a covert operation. He spat out the fluffy white trim and lunged at her, and they wrestled around for a moment, getting more and more tangled up in the fabric but before either of them could get any really good hits in Barrel scurried around and kicked them both.

"Guys! She's coming!" he whispered, but it was too late. Suddenly Sally was standing over them and they all stopped moving and looked up at her, Lock pausing with his fist pulled back in mid-air right as he was about to punch Shock in her big dumb nose.

"Are you alright?" Sally asked in a concerned voice, and the trio looked at each other. They had just wrecked her stuff and she was asking if they were alright? How could she not be mad?

"Yes…" Lock said uncertainly.

"We're alright…" Shock added.

"I didn't do anything!" Barrel said urgently, and the other two glared at him. Now that it was established no one was hurt, Sally had to hold back a grin at the sight of Shock and Lock completely tangled up in the fabric and looking at her with a mix of guilt and defiance. They really were such cute little monsters and she bent over somewhat unsteadily to start helping them get untangled.

"What happened?" she asked them gently.

"I just wanted to look at your sewing stuff and I tripped." Shock lied.

"Oh, do you like sewing?" Sally asked brightly, hoping that maybe this was some common ground she could share with at least one of the children. Before Shock could answer, Barrel said:

"Yeah, but she's really bad at it."

"She's such a girl." Lock sneered, and Shock gave both of them the coldest glare she was capable of.

Sally once again suppressed a smile and looked right at Shock. "If you'd ever like some lessons, I would be happy to help you." she said kindly, and Shock didn't really know how to respond. She was still confused by the fact that Sally hadn't scolded or threatened to discipline them and while part of her wanted to accept the offer, the rest of her knew that was no way for a Boogie Boy to behave so she turned up her nose and said proudly:

"I'll figure it out on my own. I can figure everything out on my own!"

Sally was a bit disappointed, but she also had to admire the little witch's confidence. "Okay, well if you ever change your mind, just let me know." she said cheerfully as Lock and Shock finally got to their feet. "In the meantime, you can experiment with this." She pulled out a pair of scissors and cut loose a yard of the red fabric and handed it to Shock. Sally may be naive in some ways, but she knew that this amount of chaos couldn't have been caused merely by one curious child tripping.

"Okay…" said Shock, stuffing the fabric into their bag, then the three of them hurried off without another word. It felt weird to accept a gift like this, but free stuff was free stuff so she figured she might as well take it. They continued towards the market but this time something caught Lock's eye: it was the white and green snowmobile that Jack had brought back from Christmas Town, and now the Mayor was driving it along part of the wooden ramp, pulling a tiny red sleigh full of wrapped boxes behind it. Lock watched carefully as he drove it off of the ramp and parked it near the guillotine before climbing off and heading who knows where. The children never seen a vehicle like that but if the Mayor was driving it did that mean it was his new car? They had vandalized his hearse countless times in the past and if this is what he was driving during Christmas time then clearly it needed vandalizing as well. Lock thrust his elbow behind him, intending to hit Shock in the arm or something but he accidentally hit Barrel right in the face instead.

"Ow!" Barrel shouted angrily. "What was that for?" But Lock ignored him and leaned over to whisper to Shock:

"Look at that thing!"

But she was already two steps ahead of him and she grinned wickedly, grabbed Barrel by the arm and dragged him behind her as they snuck over to the parked snowmobile, Barrel rubbing his cheek with a surly expression and plotting his revenge on Lock. But there was a problem: it didn't have any tires to slash or windows to break, and it was made out of a hard sort of material that seemed to be practically indestructible. Shock was able to scratch a few offensive words into the green part with her pocketknife but they didn't really show up very well and it was slow-going. They had to be quick or else someone would notice that they were up to something so they quickly changed tactics. "Get down in there and cut every wire you can find!" Shock whispered to her littlest cohort while Lock was busy trying to break the solitary headlight with a rock, and Barrel took her knife with a big grin and crawled into the snowmobile and got down on the floor and did just that. He'd just finished up the last wire when they heard an angry growl:

"Hey! What are you three doing!" It was Dennis the werewolf, stalking towards them and looking even more vicious than usual but the kids weren't scared of him. They thought he looked stupid wearing a shirt and no pants, plus ever since they had snuck a hair-removing potion into his shampoo they just couldn't take him seriously after seeing him with great patches of fur missing. Dennis was pretty bad-tempered anyway, but after that little stunt he hated the trick-or-treaters almost as much as the Mayor did.

"None of your bat-wax, nosy!" sneered Shock.

"Yeah, what's it to you, furball?" added Lock in the same snotty tone of voice, then he threw his rock at Dennis, which the werewolf just barely managed to dodge.

"Yeah, keep your big snout out of it!" piped up Barrel with a huge grin on his face as he climbed out of the snowmobile. Dennis's hackles went up and he snarled viciously at them, but the kids just stuck out their tongues and laughed at him before turning tail and running.

"You wait till Jack hears about this!" he yelled after them, but the kids didn't care because if Jack himself didn't catch them in the act then there was no way he could prove it was them, and so far Jack had never punished them unless he himself had witnessed their bad behavior.

"What a big, dumb mutt!" Lock snickered and his cohorts giggled in agreement. They reached the market area without any further distractions and saw that once again Clown had his hotfrog cart set up, now covered in shiny silver tinsel.

"I want a hotfrog." Barrel said, putting one hand on his growling tummy. It had been a long time since lunch and causing trouble used up a lot of energy so he was starting to get a little cranky.

"You mean you want five hotfrogs, fatty." Lock teased him, and Barrel frowned again and added this insult to his revenge-on-Lock plans. Shock snickered and pulled a small bundle of dynamite out of their sack, and Lock gave her a look that was half surprised and half impressed. "I didn't see you pack those!" he said, rubbing his hands together eagerly and liking the direction this diversion tactic was likely to go.

"That's because you don't pay attention to anything but messing with your hair and being a jerk." Shock teased him, and Barrel snickered.

Lock gave them a dirty look. "Whatever, I pay attention to stuff!" But he couldn't think of any good examples so he just snatched the dynamite out of her hand and held out his own. "Give me a match, stupid."

"Hang on, where are you going to put them?" she asked, not wanting him to waste precious dynamite by blowing them up somewhere useless.

"Down his pants, hopefully…" muttered Barrel, and Lock reached out to smack him but Barrel had had enough and he blocked Lock's arm and punched him right in the armpit, causing him to drop the dynamite.

"Why you…!" Lock hissed, and was just about to tackle Barrel but Shock swung the sack around and hit them both.

"Stop it, morons! Do you want to eat or not?" The boys stopped fighting but kept glaring at one another, Lock rubbing his armpit where Barrel's fist had hit him. Shock looked around for a good place to cause an explosion - close enough to distract Clown but not so close that he would see them and not so close that it would ruin the food cart. She settled on a giant mound of skulls that had black and silver ribbons tied in little bows around them piled up nearby - surely blowing that up would send skulls everywhere and it would take people a long time to pick them all up. She thrust the matches and dynamite into Barrel's hands. "Go blow up those skulls." she whispered but before he could go Lock reached out and grabbed his arm.

"I wanna do it!" he pouted.

"Knock it off, why are you being so annoying?!" Barrel said angrily, trying to pull out of Lock's strong grip.

Shock rolled her eyes so hard she was afraid they might fall out of her head. "Barrel has to do it so we can get the food out of the cart, dummy! He's too short to reach!" Lock had to concede that point so he let go and watched enviously as his younger cohort snuck off behind the skull pile. Lock hadn't gotten to blow up anything in what felt like forever. As Barrel went scurrying away from the pile he and Shock readied themselves to run for the cart as soon as the explosion went off and within only a minute there was a satisfying BOOM and the skulls exploded into the air like a bony volcano.

"What the - ?!" Clown shrieked, covering his tear-away face with his hands as shards of bone flew towards him and Lock and Shock had to hold in their laughter lest they give away their position. When Clown moved his hands away from his face he saw Barrel running away from the explosion and he screamed, "You again!" and tried to pedal after him but with all the skull debris on the ground he couldn't go very fast at all. Lock and Shock waited until they felt fairly confident he wasn't going to turn back around, then they quickly got into the same position as they did the last time they'd raided Clown's cart: Lock on Shock's shoulders, but this time she held open their sack and Lock threw down way more hotfrogs, fried spider legs and cotton candy into the bag than they'd stolen the last time - this time he took enough for several meals. He hopped back off her shoulders and they were just about to make their escape when Clown turned back their direction and his eyes bulged with rage when he saw them sneaking around his cart.

"We gotta hide the bag!" Shock hissed, and Lock tried to think fast - he didn't want to have to work off any debt to Clown so grabbed Shock by the arm and they ran around the building as fast as they could go as Clown tried to pedal after them through the skull debris. Luckily they ran into Barrel behind the building and Lock threw the sack at him.

"Go hide this!" he whispered, and Barrel spun around and climbed over the low wall and into the ditch to hide inside the huge, dark cement storm drain. He had just barely gotten himself out of sight when Clown came speeding around the corner and towards Lock and Shock, who stayed where they were standing and tried to look innocent.

Clown got right up in their faces and screamed in his creepy, high-pitched voice, "I know what you did, you naughty children! Bad things happen to children who are naughty!" But the kids held their ground. Clown wasn't too scary as long as he didn't tear his face off, and even then it was nothing that they couldn't handle.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Clown?" Lock said smoothly.

"We were just taking a walk, Mr. Clown." Shock said in her false-sweet voice.

"Lying little children!" he screamed, then looked over their heads and saw Jack. He called the Pumpkin King over but the kids weren't nervous. Again, Jack hadn't caught them in the act and Barrel was well-hidden with the evidence so they were definitely safe from punishment.

"What seems to be the problem, Clown?" Jack asked in a very diplomatic voice, though he was pretty sure he could guess what the issue was.

"These naughty, lying little children stole some of my food!" He turned his wicked eyes back to Lock and Shock and repeated menacingly, "Bad things happen to children who are naughty!" but the duo remained perfectly calm. Clown's _'naughty children'_ spiel might work on human kids, but it didn't work on them.

"We didn't steal anything, Jack." Lock said in his smoothest, most charming voice.

"We were just talking a walk." Shock said sweetly.

"And looking at all the Christmas decorations." Lock said.

"They sure are pretty, Jack." Shock lied.

"We already ate today, Mr. Oogie Boogie made us stew." Lock added, which wasn't a complete lie, at least.

"Liars!" Clown screeched, but Jack held up a calming hand and said:

"Did you see them take the food?"

"No, but I _know_ they did it!"

Jack raised a suspicious brow, looking at the children carefully but their well-practiced faces betrayed nothing. "Where is Barrel?"

"He had to go to the bathroom." Shock said without skipping a beat.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon." said Lock, and right at that very moment Barrel came strolling around the building to join his cohorts.

"Hi, Jack! Hi, Mr. Clown!" he said cheerily. He had stashed the sack deep inside the drainage ditch on a relatively high and dry spot and snuck back out for this very reason: it was just too suspicious having only two Boogie Boys together.

"Everything go okay in the bathroom?" Shock said, giving Barrel a significant look.

"Yeah, is your diarrhea all done?" Lock added, trying hard not to laugh.

Barrel knew enough by now to guess that this was the excuse they had chosen to explain his absence so he played the part appropriately.

"I think so." he said, holding his stomach. "That stew from Mr. Oogie Boogie sure made me have to go."

"He always eats too much and this is what happens." Shock said, and Lock was biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood in his attempt to keep from laughing out loud.

"I'm sorry, Clown, but I'm afraid if you didn't see them actually take the food and there isn't any food here now then we have to assume they are innocent." said Jack. He was almost 100% certain that the children were lying, but in Halloween Town it was innocent until proven guilty and he prided himself on being a fair king so he had no choice but to let them go.

Clown was positively quivering with rage but Jack made the rules and there was nothing to be done about it - but at least he knew that Jack would reimburse him later once he inventoried how much was missing. He leaned down right next to their three little faces and this time he used his low, gravelly, extra-scary voice: "You wait until I catch you in the act, little naughties, then you'll be sorry!" The trio just smiled wickedly at him, and he pedaled around and peeled rubber back to the front of the building. Jack watched him go and then turned back to the children, who were walking away and laughing about Lock saying the word _'diarrhea'_.

"Just a moment, you three." he called after them somewhat sternly and they froze and turned slowly back around.

"We told you we didn't steal anything, Jack." said Lock, now playing the part of an innocent child more than a charming devil.

"That's not what I want to talk to you about, though I will take this opportunity to remind you that stealing is wrong." said Jack, and the trick-or-treaters rolled their eyes impatiently. How many times was he going to give them the same speech? He frowned very seriously at them and continued, "I want to ask how your mission to capture Sandy Claws is progressing. There are only seven days left until Christmas and it is absolutely imperative that you succeed." He noticed Barrel looking at him blankly so he adjusted his choice of words. "It is very, _very_ important that you succeed. It is crucial, in fact. Christmas will be ruined if you do not catch him in time, so I am relying on you." He thought about how last time they'd had this discussion he had tried to flatter them into obedience, but given what had just happened he felt that it might be time to remind them that there would be consequences if they disobeyed. He looked down at them very sternly indeed and said, "I will have no choice but to punish you severely if you do not try your best. Have I made myself clear?" He bent down a bit closer to them and looked like he was on the verge of making a very scary face so they all three nodded quickly.

"We will, Jack!" said Barrel.

"Don't worry Jack, we haven't forgotten!" added Shock.

"We have a good plan, Jack!" finished Lock.

"Very well." he said, standing back up to his full height. "Off you go." And the children hurried away.

Barrel led them back to where he had stashed the sack full of food, Shock's red fabric and Lock's shrunken head, then they decided to head home. It was really too late in the day to make the trip all the way to the holiday doors, and on top of that they hadn't remembered to take the tub so they couldn't have carried Sandy Claws home even if they did go. As soon as they were out of town Lock reached into the sack and handed his cohorts each a baggie of fried spider legs and they happily munched their snacks and chattered about the fun day in town they had just enjoyed, deciding that it was no big deal putting off capturing Sandy Claws for just one more day.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning Barrel had just lit the ceremonial candles around Oogie's shrine when he looked up and saw an absolutely enormous cockroach sitting in the mouth of the chute and staring at him with it's buggy eyes - but he didn't try to catch or squish it because he knew that it wasn't an ordinary cockroach. "Guys!" he yelled, hurrying into the kitchen where Shock was fixing breakfast and Lock was sitting with his feet on the kitchen table, tossing his shrunken head into the air. "Oogie wants to see us!"

Lock immediately sat up straight and took his feet off the table, then said to Shock, "Hurry up with the food!"

Shock turned away from the stove and glared at him. "Let's see you cook breakfast for once, dummy! Oh wait, I forgot, you're too stupid to even know how to feed yourself!" And with that she picked up one of the pumpkin pancakes out of the pan with the spatula and dropped it right onto Lock's head. He swore angrily and shook the hot pancake off and it plopped on the floor. Barrel laughed, but he knew they had to hurry up - they didn't like to keep the Boogie Man waiting for too long. They each wolfed down a pancake and quickly got dressed, then headed down the cage elevator and into Oogie's lair, hoping that this visit would go better than the last one.

They entered bowing as usual, then knelt at his feet and bowed so low their foreheads touched the ground. "Get on up here, kiddos!" Oogie said. He sounded cheerful so they stood up and waited for their orders. "Now then, ol' Oogie Boogie has been hearing rumors around town, somethin' about a Christmas and a Sandy Claws. You three know anything about that?" The children were unsure of why exactly he was asking this question and what his reaction would be when they answered, which made Lock reluctant to speak up first again - he really didn't want the Boogie Man to hit him across the room a second time. But he knew that as the leader it was his responsibility so he rallied his courage and said:

"It's some other holiday that Jack wants to do. Sandy Claws is the king of Christmas Town."

Oogie Boogie looked thoughtful. "Another holiday, hmmm?"

"Yeah, there's a bunch of them." said Barrel.

"We already went to a different one, but it wasn't Christmas Town. The place we went was somewhere pinky and greeny and soft and stupid." added Shock.

"Huh… well how about that." said Oogie, and he didn't look angry at all but rather intrigued so the children relaxed. "And _why_ did you go to the pinky greeny soft and stupid holiday town?"

"Because Jack wants us to kidnap Sandy Claws and bring him to Halloween Town." said Lock.

"We kidnapped someone else from the pinky greeny soft and stupid world, but we put him back." added Shock.

"There were all kinds of weird things there, like lots of bugs and birds and eggs and stuff." finished Barrel.

Oogie Boogie reclined back in his seat a bit. "Bugs and birds you say? Well now, that _is_ interesting. Tell ol' Oogie all about it." The children launched into as detailed of a description of that place as they could remember and when they had finished he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I think I've got a little job for you three. Why don't you go on back to that pinky greeny soft and stupid world and bring ol' Oogie back some of those bugs and birds?" The children knew it wasn't a request. They could not refuse the Boogie Man so catching Sandy Claws would have to wait.

"Yes, Mr. Oogie Boogie." they answered in unison.

"When do you want us to go?" asked Lock.

"That all depends on how fast you do the job I've already got planned for you. You're gonna clean this place up real nice and give it a good re-painting. We gotta look our best when we welcome Sandy Claws down here, don't we?" He grinned evilly.

The children groaned internally but were careful not to show any outward signs of annoyance. They hated cleaning and they hated re-painting but at least it sounded like he was definitely interested in them bringing him Sandy Claws so they should definitely get on his good side by doing it. "Yes, Mr. Oogie Boogie." they said in unison once more, then headed towards the exit but then Oogie called:

"Hold on there, princess." He beckoned Shock with one finger and she hurried back to him. The boys glanced at her but continued out of the lair and into the adjacent closet to get the cleaning and painting supplies. "Poor ol' Oogie's got a seam that needs mending. Why don't you run on up and get your little magic kit and help me out, hmm?" Again, Shock knew that it wasn't a request so she nodded and ran out of the lair and back into the cage and up to the treehouse to grab the sewing supplies she used whenever Oogie required repair: the largest needle she had and some thick, strong, sturdy thread a similar color to his burlap skin. Barrel and Lock were already at work dusting the cobwebs and scrubbing the walls when she returned and they looked up at her as she passed them, both thinking that maybe knowing how to sew wasn't such a bad skill because it meant that Shock didn't have to clean for quite as long as they did. Oogie shifted his massive weight and she saw the ripped seam along his side - some of the bugs were squirming and crawling out of the gap and a few had already fallen on the floor. She carefully picked up each stray bug and put them back in, then threaded her needle and began sewing the tear closed with the tightest, most even little stitches she was capable of. She tried to draw it out as long as she could so she wouldn't have to start cleaning, but not so long that it would make Oogie impatient. Once she had finished he stretched and turned to test her handiwork and the stitches held firm so he smiled down at her and said, "What would ol' Oogie Boogie do without you, princess? Now go help those good-for-nothin' boys and let's see if you're as good at scrubbin' as you are at sewin'." Shock swelled with pride at this complement and stuck her tongue out at the boys as she walked proudly past them on her way to return her sewing supplies to their place upstairs. Lock and Barrel glared at her but didn't slow down their dusting and scrubbing. Shock returned and the three of them worked hard for several hours until Oogie finally gave them a break. "Come on over here and let's have a game." he said, and the children put down their scrub brushes and walked tiredly over to the card table where he was dealing out a game of Blackjack. They played several games - all of which Oogie won - and the kids suspected that he may have cheated but they didn't dare call him out on it, especially because they could smell something delicious wafting from the next room and they hoped it would be for them. Their supply of hotfrogs was running low and they were getting tired of eating pumpkin. After the games Oogie ordered them back to work and they scrubbed and swept for another several hours until they felt like they were about to collapse out of fatigue and hunger - they'd only eaten one pancake each that morning after all, and that was hours and hours ago. Lock was wiping something that looked suspiciously like dried blood off of the spikes in the iron maiden and he grinned wickedly, wondering who had gotten it and if they were still alive - clearly someone had been unfortunate enough to lose a game with the Boogie Man recently. Shock was very cautiously polishing the one-armed bandits, taking great care to stay out of the trajectory of their bullets in case one accidentally went off and Barrel was on his hands and knees scrubbing what looked like more dried blood off of the floor next to the stretching wheel. He just about fell face-first into his huge bucket of cleaning potion out of sheer exhaustion, absolutely certain that he was about to starve to death when Oogie Boogie finally waddled heavily out of the room and returned with a huge tray full of snake burgers and three glasses of soda. The children didn't get soda very often so it was truly a special treat and they eagerly accepted the delicious food and drink and sat down on the floor around his chair to eat. Then it was back to work until late into the night and they were so tired now that they could hardly keep their eyes open. Finally Oogie released them and let them go back up to their treehouse but they hadn't even started the painting yet so they knew it would be back to work tomorrow… but at least he'd also sent them home with three more snake burgers for later. The trio trudged slowly into the living room and Lock and Shock drew straws to decide who got to take a bath first because they were just too tired to fight over it. Barrel decided to take a bath the following day because he was so worn-out that he was afraid he might drown in the tub if he tried to take a bath tonight. He barely made it to his little wad of blankets and pillows and collapsed right on top of it without even changing into his pajamas and slept like a rock until morning.

He probably would have slept until lunchtime if he hadn't been woken up by Lock kicking him right in the head with his curly-toed shoe. "Geez, why'd you do that?" Barrel grumbled, rubbing his head.

"Because we gotta get back down there and do more cleaning, dummy. Here's your breakfast." Lock threw one of the wrapped-up leftover snake burgers at Barrel's face and it hit him in the forehead before he could react fast enough to even make an attempt at catching it. He ate his burger right where he was sitting in bed, deciding that bathing could wait since he was just going to go down there and get all dirty and sweaty again. It took them several hours to finish up the cleaning and then it was time for painting. Oogie Boogie wanted the black-light paint refreshed and Shock and Barrel got started painting while Lock first climbed up a rickety ladder and perched on top of various torture devices to change several burnt-out lightbulbs before joining them. They had to be extremely careful not to spill any of the paint and also to get it applied perfectly in the right patterns - Oogie was very picky about the way it looked and they didn't want to risk getting punished for doing a sloppy job. He sat at his card table playing solitaire and keeping an eye on their performance and after they'd worked for several hours he called them over for lunch and a game of poker. It took them the entire day and late into the night to finish the job to his satisfaction and they were just as exhausted as they had been the other day, but at last they were finally done.

"Now, what are you three doing tomorrow?" Oogie tested them.

"Going to Not-Christmas-Town." said Lock.

"To get you birds and bugs to eat." added Shock, and Barrel nodded.

Oogie Boogie smiled and patted each of them on the head. "That's right. Ol' Oogie's always said he's got the smartest little henchmen in all of Halloween Town and you're gonna prove it. Don't you fail me now."

The children grinned proudly and said together: "We won't, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" Then bowed their heads and backed out of the lair. They were disappointed that he hadn't sent them home with any food this time, but they had enough hotfrogs and pumpkin left for breakfast and lunch the next day, then they could steal something for dinner when they returned home from Not-Christmas-Town.

The kids allowed themselves to sleep late the next morning. They knew it was a long way back to Not-Christmas-Town but Oogie had worked them so hard the previous two days that they just couldn't help themselves and they figured that if this visit went as easy as the first visit then they should have no trouble catching some bugs and birds - but still, they had to be awake and alert to make sure that they didn't fail. Lock was woken up by Shock snoring like a buzz saw next door. Judging by the light he guessed that it was nearly noon and he thought it would probably be wise to get up and get going on their mission, plus there was no way he could continue to sleep through the racket of her snoring. At least when Barrel snored he did it quietly. _'Must be her big ol' nose.'_ Lock snickered to himself as he rolled off of his mattress and brainstormed various annoying ways to wake her up… he could get a bucket of cold water from the bathroom and dump it on her, but she would probably strangle him until he blacked out if he tried that. He could try jumping on her inner tube bed hard enough to pop it, but then she might retaliate by setting his mattress on fire or something. Finally he was struck with a brilliant idea: he'd been wanting to blow something up ever since he was forced to witness her and Barrel get to do it twice within the last few weeks, so now was the perfect opportunity for him to catch up. He snuck to the ammo supply and picked out a firecracker that would make a lot of noise but hopefully not actually destroy anything too badly since he didn't want to have to do any repairs, then crept silently into her bedroom with an evil grin on his face. Shock was sprawled out on her back with all four arms and legs draped over the sides of the inner tube and snoring loudly with a little trickle of drool at the corner of her mouth. It was hilarious to see the normally cool, collected and relatively dignified Shock looking so ridiculous and Lock wished they owned a camera so he could take a picture and plaster a hundred copies of it all over Halloween Town. He tiptoed as quietly as he could and placed the firecracker gently on the floor as close to her bed as he dared, then kept his eyes on her while he struck a match, hoping that the sound wouldn't wake her up. Fortunately it didn't, so he lit the fuse and tiptoed away as quickly and silently as he could to watch the fun from her doorway and after a few seconds the firework exploded with a deafening series of cracks and pops. Shock shrieked and jumped and fell out of her bed and onto the floor faster than Lock had ever seen her move before and he burst out laughing, slapping his knee and leaning against the doorframe for support. She came to her senses before the firecracker had even burned itself out and she glared up at him with the most murderous expression he'd seen her make in awhile so he turned tail and ran out the door as she leapt to her feet and ran after him. The firecracker was loud enough that it even woke up Barrel and he crawled out of bed and hurried to his door just in time to see Lock tear down the hallway with Shock right behind him, shouting curses and calling him all kinds of terrible names. "Good morning!" Lock yelled while still laughing, and a wide, toothy grin spread across Barrel's face - a violent Lock and Shock fight was always a highly entertaining way to start the day. Shock reached out and managed to grab Lock's tail and yank it, causing him to yelp and slow down just enough for her to launch herself onto his back and knock him face-first onto the ground. He quickly rolled over onto his back and tried to get her beneath him but Shock somehow managed to stay on top, straddling his stomach. She reached for his throat and started squeezing and he reached for her hair and started pulling, and Barrel reached for a candy bar and started eating while he watched the show.

"I'm gonna kill you, you stupid jerk!" Shock shouted, throttling him so hard that the back of his head was bumping against the floor. He yanked her hair and kicked wildly but she wouldn't let go no matter how hard he pulled so he let go of her hair and slapped her hard across the face instead. That finally released her grip and he coughed and gasped for breath as he shoved her onto her back. He put his own hands around her neck and started to strangle her in return to see how she liked it, but he wasn't paying attention to where her legs were and she kicked him right in the crotch. He instantly collapsed and Barrel winced in sympathy from his vantage point as Lock curled up into a ball on his side and tucked his tail between his legs, gritting his teeth and whimpering in pain. Shock sat up and put her face down only inches away from his and yelled, "That's what you get!" She looked pretty smug but her victory was short-lived because despite his agony Lock mustered up the strength and focus to head-butt her. She yelped in pain and fell to her side as well, bringing her hands to her forehead and even though it hurt like crazy she was glad that he hadn't hit her nose instead. They both lay there equally incapacitated so Barrel took the opportunity to inch his way around them in the hall and go get some breakfast. He'd come back and keep watching if they started fighting again. He took some leftover pumpkin pancakes out of the icebox and put them in a pan, then pulled the footstool over so he could reach to turn on the stove. He finished eating his candy bar while he heated up his pancakes and after a few minutes Shock came into the kitchen still holding one hand to her forehead and Lock came limping along behind her with his tail still between his legs - apparently they'd both hurt each other enough for now, but Barrel hoped there would be an encore. Shock got a rag and a chunk of ice and put it on the rapidly growing bump on her head while Lock sat down uncomfortably on his chair and Barrel didn't even try to hide his giggling.

"Shut up, Barrel." Lock grumbled.

"Yeah, shut up." Shock agreed, and chucked a piece of ice at him. Barrel fell off of the footstool in his attempt to dodge the ice, knocking the pan off the stove in the process and his pancakes plopped onto the floor beside him. Lock and Shock both laughed, united once more at their littlest cohort's expense as he looked sadly at his fallen breakfast that was now covered in lint and dirt and who knew what else. "Don't cry, you baby, there's plenty more. Go put those in the traps for bait and give me the pan." Shock told him as she pulled a bunch more pancakes out of the icebox with her free hand. Barrel handed her the pan and picked up his soiled pancakes, cradling them gently in his palms like they were an injured animal as he walked towards the door… but then Lock stuck out his foot and tripped him. He skidded face first onto the floor and the pancakes went flying into the air, and Lock and Shock laughed raucously when the pancakes returned to earth, one landing on Barrels back and another on his head. This was _not_ the kind of encore Barrel had been hoping for and he gave his older cohorts the angriest glare he was capable of while he collected all of the food again and continued to the living room. He considered starting a fight but he couldn't take on both of them at the same time, plus if he started a fight and lost they might not share any breakfast with him. He broke the ruined pancakes up into several smaller pieces and put them in the various traps then trudged back to the kitchen, swallowing his pride. Lock and Shock had apparently forgotten to be mad at each other and were now eating their breakfast and chattering excitedly about going back to Not-Christmas-Town and catching as many bugs and birds as they could. Barrel took his seat and grabbed three pancakes off of the plate, still feeling surly and resentful but it was impossible to pout for too long when there was delicious food in front of him and a fun mission ahead of them and soon he was chattering excitedly right along with his friends.

"Okay, we need to take Sally's potion, remember?" said Shock after breakfast, taking the three little glass vials out of the cupboard and handing them out. In fact the boys had _not_ remembered, but Lock didn't want to admit that.

"No duh, do you think we wanna listen to you barf for three days again? No thanks." he sneered, then tipped his head back and chugged the potion as quickly as he could in case it tasted gross, but it actually wasn't bad at all. Shock and Barrel did the same, then they all got dressed and packed up the bathtub with various nets, bags, boxes, slingshots and traps - as well as the last of their hotfrogs and fried spider legs for lunch - then grabbed their masks and hopped in the tub and headed out the back door and off towards the holiday doors.


	11. Chapter 11

"Yup, still ugly and stupid." said Lock as they landed in that green, fluffy, pink and white clover-filled field once more.

"Just like you." snickered Shock, and Barrel giggled.

Lock glared at the both of them. "At least I'm not as ugly as you," he pointed to Shock, "Or as stupid as you!" he pointed to Barrel, and Shock considered attempting to push that rotten little devil right out of the bathtub but their mission was too important to waste time screwing around.

"You just keep telling yourself that." she said in a very patronizing voice as she swung her leg over the side of the tub and hopped out onto the grassy field. It smelled just as revolting as it had before and she hoped that Sally's potion would work. As the boys crawled out of the tub after her (with Lock sticking his tongue out at her back) she began collecting the tools they had brought with them and delegating responsibilities. "Alright, let's split up. Lock, you take the net and go see if you can catch some of the flying bugs and some of those little blue birds. Barrel, you go collect as many of those eggs as you can find. Maybe Oogie will want to eat those, too, and if he doesn't we can just throw them at the Mayor's house like we were going to the first time we were here - before Lock threw them back in the door like an idiot."

Lock glared at her even harder. "That wasn't my fault, _you_ told me to throw the scorpions back in! I wasn't gonna stick my hand in there and get stung trying to pick out a couple of lousy eggs!"

"Scorpions don't really even hurt that bad." said Barrel as he accepted the bag that Shock handed him. She was always setting them loose in his and Lock's bedrooms as a prank and it always fell to Barrel to catch them again. Shock simply refused to cook for either of them until they rounded up the scorpions and Lock would just punch Barrel until he did it, so consequently he'd been stung many, many times over the years to the point where he was pretty much used to it.

Shock gave Lock a sly grin. "Even the midget thinks scorpions are no big deal. You're such a wimp."

Lock's face began turning almost as red as his hair. If there was one thing he hated, it was being called weak. "It's not because they hurt, it's just 'cus sticking your hands in a box full of scorpions is dumb!" he snarled. "Being naked doesn't hurt either, but I still don't wanna run around town naked or something!"

"Ew." giggled Barrel, and while he didn't appreciate being called a midget, talking about being naked was funny and it was always entertaining when Shock made Lock so mad he started blushing.

"Whatever, wimp. Go catch some bugs." Shock said bossily as she shoved the net into Lock's hands.

"What are _you_ gonna do, _princess_?" he sneered, and felt satisfied when he saw her eyelid twitch. Shock hated Oogie's nickname for her just as much as Lock hated being called a wimp, and once again she had to call on all of her strength and self control to stay on track and not waste time trying to shove Lock's face in the grass.

" _I'm_ going to go trap some of those fluffy little yellow birds on the ground." she said coolly, picking up two large cage traps out of the tub, one in each hand. "Let's meet back here before it gets dark."

"When's that going to be?" asked Barrel. He really didn't want to get stuck in the dark in this strange world.

Shock shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Because you think you know everything." Lock grumbled, still feeling sore about the scorpion conversation. He made a mental note to grab those stupid scorpions with his bare hands and throw them right at her stupid face once they got home, just to prove that he wasn't too wimpy to do it.

She ignored him, and then Barrel asked again, "What if it doesn't even get dark here?"

Shock rolled her eyes and started walking in the direction of the little valley of burrows where they had caught Not-Sandy-Claws before. "It's got to get dark eventually. Every place has a nighttime."

"How do _you_ know?" Lock sneered as he followed along after her, and Barrel brought up the rear.

"Because I know everything." she said smugly, and Lock was about two seconds away from slamming the net down over her head but her hat would just get in the way so it was pointless.

They apparently took a slightly different route this time because before too long they saw a silky-looking, light yellow fabric banner with blue writing tied between two of the smooth, pale-barked trees over a little dirt path. Shock attempted to pronounce the strange word: "Ee-A-ster town? Eeester town?" Either of those sounded plausible enough to Barrel, but Lock wasn't paying attention - a fat little bluebird sitting on a nearby branch had caught his eye and he very slowly pulled his slingshot out of his pocket, loaded up a rock, and took careful aim. He released the rock and it knocked the little bird right off of the branch, then he leapt forward and trapped it in the sack he was carrying.

"Got it!" he yelled triumphantly, feeling incredibly proud that he had bagged their first offering for the Boogie Man.

"Shhh!" Shock shushed him. "Don't scare everything else away, loudmouth!"

"Did you kill it?" Barrel whispered.

"Nah, just knocked out." said Lock, though he wasn't really sure. He _hoped_ it wasn't dead because Oogie would only accept live offerings. The three of them split up into different directions: Barrel stayed near the banner and began hunting around beneath bushes and tall bunches of grass and flowers, looking for more of the brightly-colored eggs. He also found some bugs and worms and put those in the sack too, because the more they could bring home to their master, the better. Lock headed back towards the grassy field where they'd left the tub because there were lots and lots of the colorful-winged little flapping bugs out there and he felt confident that he could catch a bunch of them in a short amount of time. Shock continued down the dirt path beneath the banner and deeper into the shrubbery and forest, searching for any signs of those fuzzy little yellow birds with the big toenails that scratched up the earth.

It really was almost too easy. None of the birds and bugs were too difficult for the trio to hunt, capture or collect and they were all feeling quite pleased and relieved that they would have so many offerings to bring home to Oogie Boogie. Within a few hours Barrel had several sacks full of eggs and bugs, and while it took Shock a bit longer since she had to wait for her prey to walk into her traps, eventually she had a decent number of little yellow birds stuffed in her sack as well. She also had a logistical problem to deal with: they cheeped loudly once she had them in her bag, so she had to hide it far enough away that the other little birds didn't hear their sounds of alarm and steer clear of her traps. She'd had no idea what might entice the fuzzy little things so she brought pumpkin seeds, candy and dried bugs… and happily, both the bugs and pumpkin seeds seemed to work.

Meanwhile Lock had caught several bluebirds with his slingshot and many of the colorful-winged insects with the net, but right when he was starting to feel really cocky he honed in on a different kind of flying insect: a small, yellow-and-black striped, somewhat fuzzy little thing that was flitting from clover blossom to clover blossom. Thinking that Oogie might appreciate a little variety, he snuck up to it and quick as a flash reached out and grabbed it with his hands, cupping it between his palms since this little bug was too small to catch with a net. Within seconds he realized he'd made a terrible mistake and he let go of the bug with a yelp as it painfully stung his hand with a sharp, piercing stab. He swore angrily and stomped on it with his foot where it had landed on the ground, killing it instantly, and Lock was careful to avoid those insects from that point on. He tried to keep catching the other bugs and birds, but his hand was throbbing painfully and within only a moment it had puffed up to not quite twice it's normal size, pulling his white skin uncomfortably taut and shiny. It felt even worse than a scorpion sting but he tried to shake it off even though it hampered his hunting ability - he didn't want his cohorts to come back and see him acting like a baby, especially Shock. He was a little bit worried about it, but right now all he could do was hope that Sally's potion would protect him from whatever poison was causing this reaction and he grumbled to himself that it would be just his luck to die from a stupid bug-bite in this stupid pastel world.

When he'd finally managed to fill up his bags with birds and bugs he dropped them off in the tub and then headed back in the direction where he'd left Shock and Barrel to see how they were progressing. As he walked over a hilltop he saw a new kind of creature and instantly dropped to the ground to lay flat on his stomach and peek through the grass. These were medium-smallish, four-legged beasts covered in white woolly fur, with little cloven hooves and long tails. They appeared to be eating the grass between frolicking around and they made high pitched little _'baaah'_ noises. They _definitely_ had to bring one of these home for Oogie Boogie! However, as soft and stupid as they looked, Lock had learned his lesson from that little yellow-and-black insect and didn't trust that these beasts would necessarily be as harmless as they appeared so he thought it would be wise to get backup. He crept slowly away from them and circled around far enough that they wouldn't spook and go running - or even worse, attack him.

He found Barrel sitting beneath one of the trees supporting the Easter Town banner, holding what looked like half of a colorful egg in his hand and actually eating the contents. "What the heck are you eating?!" Lock hissed. Maybe he wasn't the one who was going to die of poisoning in this dumb world after all. Leave it to Barrel to put his mouth on anything and everything in sight.

"What the heck happened to your hand?" Barrel answered, but Lock ignored him.

"Seriously! Are you eating a raw egg?"

Barrel's face transformed into a wide grin and he held up the egg half. "No, look! Some of them are plastic and filled with candy! Want some?" Lock looked inside of it and saw lots of little multi-colored jelly beans. Sometimes they got jelly beans while trick-or-treating, but not very often. His survival instinct battled with his candy-eating instinct for a moment, but eventually he gave up and took a few of the jelly beans. He was probably going to die from that bug sting anyway, so he might as well go out happy. "So what happened to your hand?" Barrel asked again as Lock sat down beside him.

"It's just a bug bite, no big deal."

Barrel looked dubiously at Lock's swollen hand. "I dunno, it kinda looks like a big deal to me."

"Well it isn't. Nothing in this ugly world is a big deal!" Lock said irritably as he grabbed one of the plastic eggs and snapped it open. Feeling reckless, he tipped back his head and dumped the entire contents into his mouth at once when suddenly Shock came pushing through the underbrush dragging her full sack behind her.

"You two had better have caught a bunch of birds and bugs before sitting around stuffing your fat faces!" she said angrily. Those boys were so lazy, always making her do all the work, and she kicked the plastic eggs out of both of their hands before they even saw it coming.

"OW! Hey! We caught stuff!" Lock snarled, shaking his hand that she'd kicked.

"Yeah, see?" said Barrel, gesturing to his pile of full bags while rubbing his own hand where her boot had made contact.

"What the heck happened to your hand?" asked Shock, suddenly noticing Lock's swollen, bug-stung appendage. It looked both hilarious and gross and she'd never seen anything quite like it.

"You just kicked it, moron!" he said angrily.

"No, the big puffed-up one!"

"It's just a bug bite, it's no big deal! It doesn't even hurt or anything."

Shock raised one eyebrow but didn't press the matter and instead asked, "What are you two idiots eating?"

"Some of them are full of jelly beans!" Barrel said excitedly, holding a plastic egg up to his eldest cohort and she inspected it for a moment before snapping it open.

"Huh… weird." she said, carefully picking a jelly bean out of the egg and looking at it closely. She figured Lock and Barrel had probably already eaten quite a few of them and they weren't dead yet, so what was the harm in trying a few herself? As she popped one into her mouth, Lock suddenly remembered the little woolly beasts he'd seen only moments ago.

"Hey! We have to go back to the tub, there's some animals hanging around there that we definitely gotta try to catch for Oogie Boogie!"

"So why didn't you catch any, dummy?" Shock said, popping another jelly bean into her mouth. They really were quite tasty.

"Because they're the biggest things we've seen here besides Not-Sandy-Claws. It's gonna take all three of us."

That sounded promising so Shock stopped giving him a hard time. "Okay, let's go!" she said, heaving her sack full of little peeping birds over her shoulder and dragging it along behind her as Barrel and Lock picked up the bags full of eggs and insects. After they'd put them all carefully into the tub Lock led his cohorts over to where he'd seen the creatures grazing and frolicking. They all three lay on their tummies in the grass as they peeked over the crest of the hill and Shock and Barrel agreed that bagging one of these for Oogie would most definitely get them on his good side.

"How are we gonna get one?" whispered Barrel. They'd never tried to catch anything quite like these before.

Shock began tying the rope they'd brought into a noose. "You two run down there and try to chase one up here to me. Then I'll try and lasso it." she whispered back, and Lock glared at her.

"How come _we_ have to run down there?"

"Because you're the fastest runner." she said, knowing full well that stroking Lock's ego could get him to do just about anything without complaint because he just couldn't resist showing off.

"Yeah, I am." he said boastfully, puffing out his chest a bit as he moved into a crouching position like a sprinter at the starting blocks. Barrel tried to mimic Lock's position even though he knew he wasn't a very fast runner at all - but he was still going to try his best. "You go left and I'll go right, on my count." Lock muttered and the little ghoul tensed up, preparing to spring into action. "One… two… three!" Both of them tore down the hill in different directions at top speed and all of the little woolly beasts looked up in alarm before bunching tightly together and running away - but they didn't seem to know which way to go and they ended up just darting back and forth in random directions, bleating in terror. Then Barrel stumbled and fell, hit the ground hard and began rolling roughly head over heels all the way down the hill, yelping and grunting with every bump. Lock and Shock both started laughing hysterically, though Lock took care not to lose his footing as well - running down the grassy hill was much trickier than running on flat ground. The fact that Barrel was now rolling towards them instead of running didn't seem to matter to the little woolly beasts, they just kept frantically darting about. Lock circled wide around behind them, yelling and waving his arms and they all shot right up the hill where Shock lay waiting. When Barrel finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill he spat the grass out of his mouth and scrambled to his feet to run behind Lock and the creatures as fast as he could, yelling and waving as well even though it really didn't help much at that point.

Shock waited and watched as the little herd of panicked creatures came nearer and nearer and she readied the rope, preparing to snag the closest one… but when they finally got close enough that she had a chance the beasts caught sight of her and veered sharply in a different direction and ran right past her. "Noooo!" she gritted in frustration and threw her lasso after them anyway, but she didn't even come close. "Dang it!" she yelled, throwing the rope to the ground as the creatures ran far away over another hill and out of sight, their terrified bleating getting fainter and fainter before going quiet all together.

"Oh good job, you let them get away!" Lock shouted as he finally got up the hill beside her again, panting and gasping for breath. Those little beasts were fast on their four cloven-hoofed feet and they'd worn him right out.

Shock ignored him. "We should have set some sort of a trap… but how?" she murmured to herself. They seemed to eat grass, not beetles, candy or pumpkin seeds, so what could they use for bait?

"WHO CARES!?" Lock yelled louder. "They're gone now! And you can run after them yourself next time, if we ever even find them again!"

"Shut up!" Shock finally snapped at him - he was disrupting her thinking with his obnoxious yelling.

"Make me!" he fired back, and she was about to wrap the noose around his neck and do just that when Barrel came staggering over the hill. They both turned to look at him and started cracking up once again because he looked so ridiculous - his costume was completely covered in grass stains and there were chunks of dirt and grass - and even a few daisies - stuck all over his clothing, hair and face.

"Did you get one?" he wheezed, holding his side and desperately hoping that he wouldn't have to do any more running.

"No, smarty-pants over here let them get away!" Lock sneered, crossing his arms.

"Well excuse me, how am I supposed to stop them when they run in the totally wrong direction?!" she sneered back, putting her hands on her hips.

"I dunno, maybe by not being loud and ugly!?"

"LOOK WHO'S TALKING!"

"Aw, man…" Barrel interrupted with a groan, frustrated by all of that that running and rolling with nothing to show for it but a dirty costume and likely plenty of bruises.

"It doesn't matter!" Shock growled. "What Oogie doesn't know won't hurt him - or us! We've got enough stuff to make him happy for now, and we can always try and bag one of those four-legged things later when we really need to get on his good side!"

"That's a good idea." Barrel said, still a bit breathless, and as annoyed as Lock was that they'd missed their prey this time he had to agree as well. It was always smart to have a backup plan for impressing Oogie waiting in the wings for when they really needed it.

The large yellow sun was just barely beginning to set as they headed back to their bathtub, the sky slowly turning from blue into rich pinks, oranges and purples that would probably be considered beautiful by anyone not from Halloween Town. "See, I told you it would get dark here!" Shock said snottily as she climbed into the tub, careful not to squish any of the animals or eggs they had gathered.

"Who cares?" Lock grumbled, shifting the sack full of peeping yellow birds gently aside so he could sit down more comfortably.

"I'm hungry." said Barrel, and he rooted around the tub until he found their satchel full of hotfrogs and fried spider legs that they'd packed for lunch. He handed his cohorts their portions, then flipped the faucet handle to _'on'_ and they trundled back towards the holiday doors while they ate, hoping that the Boogie Man would be pleased with what they were bringing him.

...

 **Author Note: Thanks so much for being patient on this one, friends! My hard drive crashed back in August, taking all of my progress on this story (and everything else on my computer) with it. Fortunately for me a (very expensive) specialist was able to restore all of my files! Yay! I'm so excited to pick up this story again and had a blast finishing up this chapter. So I hope you enjoyed it, too, and hopefully there won't be any more extremely long waits between chapters in the future.**  
 **As always, your reviews, comments and messages mean the world to me so if you're enjoying the story, I would sure appreciate hearing about it! Thank you! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

The orange sun was also starting to set in their own world when they landed safely on the grey, barren ground in the center of the circle of scraggly, dead, holiday-door trees. Most of the cheeping and twittering birds had ceased to peep and chirp by now and the children hoped it was because they were just exhausted and not that they'd suffocated in the bags. Shock very carefully opened one up and peeked inside to check, and fortunately it seemed like at least most of them were only sleeping.

"How's your hand?" Barrel asked his middle cohort. It was still quite swollen - in fact, it actually looked worse than it did before.

"It doesn't hurt." Lock lied, "It just itches really bad." He'd been trying to avoid looking at it until now, but since it didn't seem to be getting any better he finally made himself inspect it closely. It looked just as swollen as it felt, but then he noticed something he hadn't before: there appeared to be a little sliver poking out of his palm, like a tiny thorn. "I guess it didn't actually bite me, it looks like it stuck me with a little blow dart full of poison or something." He didn't really know how else to describe it.

"What? What kind of insect uses a blow dart, you moron?" Shock said, closing up the bag full of birds and grabbing Lock's hand to inspect it herself.

"OW, careful!" he hissed, trying to jerk his hand away but she held on tightly.

"I thought you said it didn't hurt?" she smirked, so he gritted his teeth and let her look at and prod his hand. "Weird, it _does_ look like a little blow dart." she murmured.

"I told you!" Lock said crankily, feeling a grim sort of satisfaction that she had to agree with his assessment.

"What if your hand falls off?" Barrel asked eagerly, poking his head over Lock's shoulder to look at the little poison blow dart in question. Lock gave him a nasty glare and Shock had to work hard to hold in a snicker. "That would be so cool!" Barrel continued, and Lock was just about to punch him with his good hand until he added, "Then what if Dr. Finkelstein gives you a new hand with gigantic poisonous claws on it or something? Or a super-strong robot hand?"

Shock rolled her eyes but Lock actually grinned a little bit at that. He'd prefer to keep his own hand, but if it _did_ fall off then having poisonous claws or a super-strong robot hand would be a pretty good consolation prize. Shock pulled the small knife she always kept with her out of her pocket and this time Lock managed to pull his puffy hand out of her grip. "What the crap do you think you're doing with that?!" he demanded, eyeing the knife suspiciously.

"I'm gonna try to get that little thorn thing out of your hand, dummy. Unless you'd rather keep it in there forever."

"Fine, but stop the tub first, I don't need you cutting my whole arm off!" He wasn't too keen on the idea of Shock taking a knife to him, but he doubted he would be able to do it himself with his non-dominant hand - and he certainly wasn't going to let Barrel try it - so once the tub lurched to a stop he held out his swollen hand, keeping a close eye on Shock and preparing to yank it away in case she tried anything funny. Fortunately for him she did exactly what she said she would, gently scraping the edge of the blade against his skin until the stinger finally came out.

"There." she said proudly, flicking the knife over the side of the tub so that the stinger would fall onto the ground. "You're welcome."

"Yeah, whatever. Thanks." he grumbled. _'Thanks'_ was one of his least-favorite words to say, but there was still time for her to stab him so he thought he'd better do it.

"Anyway, let's go send all these things down to Oogie Boogie, then come back to town and steal some dinner." said Shock as they started along towards their treehouse again. They were careful to avoid town so Jack wouldn't see that they had their tub filled up with things that weren't Sandy Claws. They were running out of time and they worried that he might get mad at them for cutting it so close, but there was simply no way they could defy the Boogie Man. They had to fulfill his missions first because while it was possible that Jack might beat them for waiting so long to get Sandy Claws, it was absolutely certain that Oogie would beat them if they disobeyed so they went with their best odds.

The tub lumbered through the back door and into it's place in the bathroom, then the children carefully took the various sacks and traps filled with animals and eggs out of the tub and over to Oogie's shrine. They collected every trap and small cage that would fit down the chute, lit the ceremonial candles and formed a little assembly line: Shock pulled a bird or bug out of the sack and checked to see if it was still alive. If it was, then she passed it to Lock who put them in the cages, but if they had died from being captured or during the journey she set them aside - they would eat those themselves later. Once Lock had stuffed as many birds and bugs into a cage as would fit he handed it to Barrel, who stood on his tiptoes to drop the cage down the chute to their master. Once all of the living birds and bugs had been sent to their deaths they were left with two huge sacks full of eggs.

"What should we do with these? We can't send them down the chute, they'll just break all over and then we'll have to clean it up." said Shock, and her cohorts shrugged. They hadn't thought about that.

"We'll just bring them down next time he calls us." decided Lock, and everyone agreed that was a good idea.

Suddenly Barrel remembered something: "Hang on, one of those bags is full of the candy ones!" he said, sitting down beside Shock and poking his head inside and rummaging around to figure out which one.

"You wasted a bag on candy?!" Shock whispered, not wanting to risk Oogie overhearing. They were pretty certain that he couldn't actually hear them from all the way down in his lair, but she didn't want to take a chance no matter how remote the possibility.

"Don't be such a worrywart. We just sent down tons of food and like you said earlier, we don't know if he even likes eggs." Lock said casually (though still quietly) as he scooped up the pile of dead birds and bugs and headed towards the kitchen. "Why don't you cook these tonight, then we don't have to go to town to get dinner."

Shock frowned at him. "Why don't _you_ cook them?" she said crankily, but Lock was already in the kitchen and didn't reply. She'd been planning to cook them eventually anyway - like always - but it was still annoying when he told her to do something.

"Please don't make him cook them." Barrel pleaded as he cracked open an egg full of jelly beans. "He's awful at it."

Shock frowned at him next. "It wouldn't kill _you_ to learn how to cook, either, y'know."

Barrel gave her what he hoped was an ingratiating smile and held out another plastic egg as a peace offering. "But you're really good at it!" he wheedled. Shock wasn't quite as vain as Lock was, but she was still susceptible to compliments and Barrel wasn't above using flattery to stay in her good graces.

"I know I am." she said grumpily, but took the egg he handed her before heading to the kitchen and Barrel followed along behind her. They found Lock putting a cookie sheet full of the dead insects into the oven to dry them and Shock began plucking the birds to put them in the icebox for later. "We should still go to town tonight and get dinner. We don't have enough food for tomorrow and we have GOT to go to Christmas Town! There's only three days left and if we screw up Jack's going to do something awful to us." she said, shoving the pile of dead birds closer to Barrel so he could help pluck them.

All sorts of terrible images flashed through Barrel's mind at the thought. Did Jack have torture devices like Oogie did? Would he be mad enough to stretch them on the rack or hang them by their feet if they didn't catch Sandy Claws? Or would he just beat them black and green? Barrel wasn't sure they had enough of Sally's healing poultice to take care of all three of them if something like that happened. What if Jack got so mad that he ran them right out of town? Where would they go then? That thought terrified him and he hoped his older cohorts had a good plan for catching that fat old man.

"Yeah, okay." agreed Lock. He had forgotten that they only had three days left and this reminder actually made him feel a bit anxious, too. "Do we have any more of that stinky medicine stuff from Sally? I wanna see if it'll help this bug sting." he asked, scratching his swollen hand.

"I thought you said it didn't hurt?" giggled Barrel, repeating Shock's earlier teasing.

Lock glared at him and snapped, "It doesn't! It just itches!" He knew it would hurt quite a lot, but he smacked Barrel on the back of the head with his sore hand anyway - just so his cohorts would believe him when he said it didn't hurt.

"It's in the bathroom cupboard." Shock smirked as Lock left the kitchen, swishing his tail in annoyance.

When he got back he sat at the table to nurse his swollen, poultice-covered hand and keep an eye on the bugs in the oven while Shock showed Barrel how to gut the plucked birds. "Be careful, don't cut the guts open or you'll get crap all over the meat." she said, and Barrel scrunched up his nose in disgust and tried to keep his hand perfectly steady.

"And you'll have to eat the crappy ones." added Lock as he opened up the oven door to peek inside. Prepping the birds took several hours, especially with Barrel slowing them down, but Shock didn't mind because it was about time their littlest cohort started pulling a bit more of his own weight in the kitchen, and Lock didn't mind because it gave him that much longer to keep the poultice on his hand. It was soothing the pain and itching just as well as it had helped his broken ribs and bruised back, and he was starting to reassess his earlier decision to put Sally at the top of their prank-victim list because she might actually be a valuable person to have on their side. Finally all of the birds were put away in the icebox and the dried insects in jars so the trio donned their masks, grabbed a now-empty sack and headed to town to scrounge up some food for their journey to Christmas Town the next day.

The kids had been hoping that things would be a little quieter in town since it was quite late, but unfortunately with all the Christmas hustle and bustle that wasn't the case - though at least they didn't see Jack anywhere. The large wooden platform in the middle of the square seemed to be completed and now it was wrapped with strings of little orange decorative lights and had a ramp attached to it leading upwards towards the sky, and the children couldn't fathom what it could possibly be for. "What is that thing?" Lock asked the Man Under the Stairs as he wheeled by, and the monster gave the trio a rather wary look. He wasn't too fond of them since they were constantly sneaking up while he was sleeping and either loosening or greasing the wheels on his little scooter, which always led to some sort of accident.

"It's a take-off-ramp for Jack to fly off of." he answered.

"How's he gonna fly?" asked Barrel. He knew that the Pumpkin King could do some pretty amazing things, but to the best of his knowledge flying was not one of them.

But Shock was already putting it together in her head. "He's gonna do what Sandy Claws does: he must have some of those flying reindeer and they're gonna pull the sleigh and bring all these presents to the human kids, right?"

"That's right." the monster nodded, then he quickly wheeled away from them.

"So that must be why Jack wants us to catch Sandy Claws - he wants to do his job." Lock murmured out loud. He gave the take-off ramp an experimental kick but the construction was thick and sturdy and not rickety at all. If they'd had more time he would have tried to pry out some of the nails and screws to make it more dangerous - maybe they still could later if acquiring food went quickly.

Shock rolled her eyes at him. "Duh, you just now figured that out? You're so dumb, I knew that ages ago."

"Yeah right, you liar! You didn't know that until ol' wheely over there told us!" Lock snapped, feeling a bit embarrassed at the possibility that she may have figured that out before him.

"Yes I did!"

Lock got right up in her face and sneered, "Oh yeah? Prove it!"

"How am I supposed to prove that, moron?" she sneered back at him.

"I dunno, maybe you wrote it in your girly diary with a date on it or something! _'Dear diary, today I figured out that Jack wants to take over Sandy Claws's job. Thanks for being my only friend. Love, ugly, stupid Shock who nobody likes becau-'_ " But that's as far as he got because Shock shoved him in the chest with both hands, nearly knocking him over into the ramp.

"Shut up, Lock!" she shouted. "You think I'm dumb enough to keep a diary with you two buttheads around?" The truth was that she _did_ actually have a diary, but she kept it extremely well hidden in a locked box under the floorboards beneath her bed and guarded by a hair-trigger bear trap that would snap the hand right off of anyone who dared touch it - only Shock knew how to disable it without getting snapped.

"I don't know, are you?" Lock said mockingly and he moved to shove her back but Barrel suddenly popped in-between them and got shoved instead. But the little ghoul didn't even care because he had something more important on his mind:

"Look! Barbecue!" he said excitedly, pushing his way past his bickering cohorts and they turned their heads to look where he was pointing.

"We have _got_ to get some of that!" said Lock, and Shock agreed. Their fight was forgotten as they all three sniffed the air and breathed in the mouthwatering scent of spiced meats cooking over coals that Dennis the werewolf was tending to.

"How... are we... gonna... do it?" asked Barrel between deep sniffs. It just smelled so good.

Lock and Shock put their heads together for a moment to try and figure something out - there was a very large crowd around the barbecue pit and it would require a big distraction to get them all out of the way long enough for the trick-or-treaters to grab some for themselves. Finally Shock handed Barrel some matches and said, "Okay, go set the ramp on fire, as far away from everyone as possible so they don't see it too soon and put it out before me and Lock get some food. Start the fire by the lights so everyone will think they shorted out and caused it."

Barrel took the matches but felt uneasy about the plan because surely setting Jack's flying reindeer ramp on fire would get him into very, _very_ deep trouble if he got caught. "Why do I have to do it?" he whined.

"You're the one who wants barbecue so bad." said Lock, though he wanted the delicious-smelling food just as much as Barrel did. He pulled the heavy lid off of a nearby manhole just far enough for the little ghoul to squeeze through and added, "Just jump down here before anyone sees you and meet us behind the apothecary. Got it?"

Barrel nodded reluctantly, but at least they had given him a better escape plan than just running away this time. He hid behind the ramp and watched his cohorts make their way closer to the food, and once Lock and Shock had snuck behind a nearby dumpster without anyone seeing them they gave him a thumbs-up signal across the town square. He struck several matches and held them to the ramp in various places next to the strings of little orange lights - it took a moment for the wood to catch fire, but then thick grey smoke began rising into the air. As soon as he felt the flames were well-established he quickly scooted down into the sewer and pulled the heavy manhole cover back over to close himself in. He pressed his ear against the holes in the cover and waited… and then he heard it.

"FIRE!" someone yelled, and Barrel giggled a bit as he climbed the rest of the way down the ladder. He lit a match to guide him as he sloshed through the murky green sludge oozing through the tunnels towards where Lock had told him to go, though he probably could have found his way without it. He and his cohorts knew the sewers and drainage pipes of Halloween Town like the backs of their hands by now, because those networks of tunnels were invaluable for enacting so many of their mischievous pranks. By the time he poked his head cautiously out of the manhole behind the apothecary he found Lock and Shock already waiting for him. They both looked a bit frazzled, but at least their sack was full.

"Whew, that was close!" breathed Lock.

"Too close!" panted Shock.

"Why? What happened?" Barrel asked as he climbed out of the sewer. He left the manhole lid off so that it would annoy whoever stumbled across it next - and maybe whoever that was would even fall into it, which would be even better.

"We didn't see that a few of the devils were nearby." Shock explained, and Barrel immediately understood: grown-up devils could put out fires almost as well as they could start them, so clearly his cohorts hadn't gotten as much time to steal the food as they had planned.

"Let's go home before someone notices they're missing some rat and mushroom kebabs." said Lock, and Barrel felt his tummy growl because rat and mushroom kebabs were his favorite kind.

"You're a mess." Shock teased him as they headed for the treehouse, and Barrel looked down at himself and saw that she was quite right. His costume was still covered in grass stains and dirt from Easter Town, and now he was also covered in green sludge from the knees down from running through the sewers.

"What else is new?" snickered Lock, but Barrel only grinned because it _was_ pretty funny how filthy he was. Plus getting this filthy had been fun… except for maybe the part where he'd rolled all the way down that hill.

"How are we gonna catch Sandy Claws tomorrow?" Barrel asked as they rode the elevator cage up into their living room.

Lock shrugged. "We'll need to case the joint pretty good when we get there first. Then we'll probably set a trap like Shock said, and then stuff him in the bag when we catch him like we did to the king of Easter Town."

"What if he flies away before we can get him?" asked Barrel again.

"Sandy Claws doesn't fly, only his reindeer do." said Shock as she swung open the cage door.

"But he can fly up chimneys, right?" Barrel insisted.

"So what? We'll just bag him somewhere there isn't a chimney around!" Lock said impatiently. Why did his cohorts always have to make everything sound more difficult than it was? He supposed that Barrel couldn't help it that he was so little and helpless, and Shock couldn't help that she was so delicate and weak, so he decided to give them a pass. Not everyone could be as amazing as he was, after all.

Barrel tried to stick his hand in the sack full of barbecue as soon as Shock sat it on the kitchen counter but she slapped him away and said, "Go take a bath, you're stinking everything up!"

"But I'm starving! Lunch was forever ago!"

"You're fat enough you'll survive for ten more minutes while you go de-stink yourself!" she said meanly, and Lock laughed.

"I'm not fat! Jack said I'm big-boned!" Barrel pouted, but that only made his cohorts laugh more.

"What does that even mean?" chortled Shock. "You're fat - deal with it!"

"So get going, stinky!" Lock taunted as he took a delicious-looking kebab out of the sack for himself, and Barrel stared longingly at it before turning around and stomping out of the kitchen.

"Don't eat it all!" he said grumpily as Shock and Lock both started eating.

"Then you'd better hurry up!" Lock called after him.

"Yeah, these are really, _really_ good. Me and Lock might not be able to stop!" Shock added, and the two of them snickered.

"Save some for me, you turds!" Barrel yelled, now running for the bathroom. He rarely called his older cohorts names, but if they ate all of the food without him then Barrel would do worse than just insult them. He took just enough time to grab his clean pajamas out of his bedroom, then hopped into the tub and washed off as fast as he could. He left his dirty costume in the bathwater to try and soak all of the grass stains out of it - he'd finish scrubbing it later, but for now food was his top priority. Thankfully Lock and Shock had barely made a dent in it by the time he ran back into the kitchen, and he loaded up his plate with delicious kebabs and dug in like he hadn't eaten for days.

It was quite late by the time dinner and their dessert of Easter Town candy was over and while Barrel scrubbed his costume as clean as he could get it, Shock convinced Lock to let her practice her lassoing on him for a little while. He only agreed because it was possible that they would need to lasso Sandy Claws, plus he was hoping that maybe he'd pick up how to do it himself by watching her since he was too proud to ask for actual lessons. First he let her try and lasso him while he stood still, and once she got that down he increased the difficulty by running around and jumping off of the sofa. "Nice! That fat old man doesn't stand a chance against us!" Lock grinned wickedly from the couch where he'd fallen over when she'd lassoed him around his legs and Shock grinned back at him, feeling quite proud of herself.

"How's your hand?" she asked as she walked over to free him from the rope. Normally she would have just left him tied up on the sofa and laughed at him - and she normally wouldn't care much about his sore hand either - but tomorrow was extremely important and they all needed to be at the top of their game.

"It feels fine, it doesn't even itch anymore." he said, holding it up for both of them to look at as Shock plopped down to sit beside him on the couch, and it actually wasn't a lie - Sally's healing poultice had worked wonders and the swelling had gone down so much that it looked almost normal again.

"Are you sad you're not gonna get a super-strong robot hand?" Shock giggled and Lock snorted, but then he gave her an even more wicked grin.

"Yeah, 'cus if I had one of _those_ then I could squish you like a bug instead of just doing _this!_ " he said, then without warning he leapt at her and grabbed her by the shoulders to shove her down into the cushions. She shrieked and laughed and managed to push him off of her, but he held on tightly and they both went rolling off of the sofa and onto the floor. While more often than not they wrestled out of anger, it wasn't unusual for them to wrestle just for fun and when Barrel came back to the living room he detected the good-natured tone of the fight and decided to join in. The three of them wrestled around on the floor until they were all quite tired, which didn't take much time at all because it had been a very long, busy day full of walking, running, hunting - and in Barrel's case, rolling.

"Alright, bedtime, morons." Shock said as she looked up at the large patch in the roof that she and Barrel had installed not all that long ago. "We gotta get up and get going early tomorrow."

"It's gonna be fun catching Sandy Claws, isn't it?" Barrel yawned as he sat up. If he didn't get up and into bed soon he was in very real danger of falling asleep right there on the living room floor.

"Definitely." agreed Lock as he got up as well. "It's the most important job, so of course it's gonna be fun. _'Top priority'_ , remember?"

"Yeah…" Barrel said dreamily. "Think how happy Jack's gonna be, and how him and everyone else are gonna think we're so important."

"Remember what he said? _'No one in Halloween Town is as crafty and clever'_ as we are!" Shock said proudly as she picked her hat up off of the floor, and her cohorts both nodded proudly as well. After brushing their teeth they crawled into their three little beds and fell asleep almost instantly, dreaming of all of the excitement and acclaim that tomorrow would surely bring.


	13. Chapter 13

Lock's yellow eyes snapped open at the distant crow of the skeletal rooster and he immediately jumped out of bed, threw off his pajamas and pulled on his costume, then hurried out into the hall. Today was the big day and he was excited to get started on their adventure. He smelled something delicious and unfamiliar wafting from the kitchen - apparently Shock was already awake and preparing breakfast. He stopped at his younger cohort's room and pounded on the door. "Hey Barrel! Wake up!" he shouted, and before waiting for a reply he flung open the door and leapt right on top of his sleeping comrade and his wadded up nest of blankets. "Wake up!" he yelled again with a huge grin on his face as he started smothering the little ghoul with one of his own pillows, and Barrel was jolted unpleasantly awake and immediately began fighting back.

"Okay, okay, I'm awake already!" he muffled through the thin, lumpy pillow, and he managed to punch Lock in the ear but the little devil barely reacted.

"It's time to go get Sandy Claws!" Lock yelled, lifting the pillow off of his cohort's face and Barrel grinned up at him, equally excited to go bag that fat old man. "C'mon, slowpoke! Let's go see what Shock made for breakfast, it smells good!" Lock said happily as he jumped to his feet and threw the pillow back at Barrel's head, and Barrel actually managed to catch it this time before scrambling to his feet as well. He hurried out the bedroom door right behind Lock to see what their eldest cohort was cooking - getting dressed could wait until later, especially since it seemed likely his costume would still be damp from being washed the night before.

Both boys entered the kitchen just in time to see Shock taking a shallow iron cauldron off the stove top and placing it on the kitchen table. "What is that? It smells so good!" Barrel asked eagerly as Shock took the heavy lid off of the cauldron and set it aside.

"It's those little fluffy yellow birds from Easter Town that we caught. I cooked them with some mandrake and rye biscuits." she said proudly, taking off her thick, protective oven mitts.

Lock looked down into the cauldron and inhaled deeply, and it smelled so good that without even thinking about it he said, "This is amazing!" It was rare for him to be so openly complimentary of her cooking, so clearly this new recipe was a winner and it seemed likely that many more trips to Easter Town were in their future.

"I know, right?" Shock said with a smug little smile, but Lock was so focused on trying some of this new meal that he just stuck his tongue out at her without taking his eyes off of the steaming cauldron. "I figured we're probably going to have a long day so we need to have a really good, big breakfast! Plus it's supposed to be really cold in Christmas Town so hopefully this will help us stay warm."

Barrel rushed over to the silverware drawer and pulled out three tarnished spoons and a bent ladle while Lock retrieved three big bowls. The chicken-and-dumplings tasted just as great as it smelled and each child had several large servings while they chattered about the next order of business. Suddenly Barrel noticed something he hadn't earlier and asked:

"Why's my costume up there?"

Lock turned his head to look and saw that Barrel's little skeleton suit was dangling from a couple of nails in the wall above the stove instead of on the clothesline.

"I thought that the heat from the stove would help dry it out. We don't need you getting all cold and slowing us down in Christmas Town because your costume ices over or something." Shock said through a mouthful of breakfast, and once again Barrel was amazed by his older cohort's cleverness. "Anyway," she continued, "We'll take some of the kebabs from yesterday, a few of the extra biscuits and some Easter Town candy with us for lunch. You two send the traps down to Oogie Boogie and go load up the tub with everything else we'll need while I get the food packed. Got it?"

"Sure thing, bossy." Lock snickered and Shock threw a chunk of biscuit at him, but he had quick reflexes and easily caught it and popped it into his mouth with a grin. It was too delicious to waste on a food fight.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, gotten dressed, sent down the traps and packed up everything they needed into their walking bathtub, they all three took their dose of Sally's anti-allergy potion and headed out the back door and off into the woods. Several hours (and several fights) later they arrived at the ring of holiday trees and Barrel brought the tub to a stop right in front of the door that they now knew was shaped like a Christmas tree. Apparently the humans dressed up these strange green trees with little lights and baubles and used them as a sort of altar that Sandy Claws placed the presents beneath in exchange for milk and cookies. Shock said she thought that was a pretty lopsided arrangement and Lock agreed with her, saying that Sandy Claws must be a real sucker to let himself get ripped off like that. But Barrel thought that cookies in exchange for delivering presents didn't seem like too bad a deal, especially since according to the books Sandy's little helpers did most of the work making the toys anyway.

Lock hopped out of the tub, turned the shiny golden doorknob and peered inside, but it was just as dark as all the other doors they'd been through and he couldn't see a thing. "Ready?" he called as he clambered back into the tub and held on tightly.

"Ready!" his cohorts said together, and the tub lurched forward and down into the darkness. After visiting and returning from Easter Town two times already they pretty much knew what to expect during this part, but it was still an exciting thrill ride and they all shrieked happily as they fell down into the faint blue light below. Soon the air became rather chilly and flurries of white began swirling around them before they landed on a mound of cold, glittery white stuff which they had since learned was called 'snow'. The holiday doors behind them were all tall evergreens like Christmas trees, their branches weighed down by the snow and the children took note of the Jack-o-Lantern door that would take them back home. The sky was a bright, deep blue with greenish lights over the horizon, and the trio had to admit that the lights were actually kind of neat looking. Way down in the distance they could see the faint glow of what they assumed was the town and they started the tub off in that direction - though it moved much more slowly than usual through the deep drifts of snow with it's cold-stiffened joints.

"It really _is_ cold here." Shock mumbled between her chattering teeth. She always ran a bit on the cool side anyway and this crisp, freezing air wasn't helping.

Being a devil, however, Lock always ran hot and he rolled his eyes at her. "You're such a wimp. It's not that bad."

For his part Barrel didn't usually feel too affected by whatever the temperature was unless it was quite extreme, though he generally preferred it to be a bit cooler. Christmas Town was considerably chillier than he would have liked, but it wasn't bothering him much at the moment because there were so many other things competing for his attention in this strange new world. All three children looked around in wide-eyed wonder, for even though they were a bit more prepared for Christmas Town than they were for Easter Town it was still rather overwhelming to be in such a radically different place. While they didn't quite understand Jack's enthusiasm for it, it certainly did feel like the polar opposite of their own world. The tub pushed through the snowdrifts and crested the hill, then they saw the town down in the valley… and if they thought Jack had gone overboard decorating their own town, it was nothing compared to the real thing: the brown buildings were absolutely covered in colorful little lights and evergreen garlands, their pointed roofs draped in thick blankets of snow, and all of the trees near the town were decorated with lights and little baubles, too.

"Well, at least it doesn't stink like flowers." Lock said as he sniffed the air. All he could detect was the scent of the evergreen trees all around them - which wasn't great, but it was still better than flowers.

"Where is everyone?" Barrel wondered out loud, for they didn't see a single soul out and about.

"Probably all inside because it's stupid cold out here!" grumbled Shock, and even though Lock didn't think it was _that_ uncomfortably cold out, he thought that perhaps she might be right about everyone being inside.

"They must be… let's go down there and get a closer look. It's not Christmas yet so they can't all be in the Human World already."

As they drew nearer to the town they finally saw some creatures and they crouched low in the tub and peeked over the side. The tub was somewhat camouflaged against the snow, but the trick-or-treaters stood out like sore thumbs except for Lock and Barrel's stark white faces.

"What are those?" Barrel wondered again, for he didn't recall seeing little black and white bird-things that walked around on two legs with flipper-like wings in any of the Christmas books he had looked at.

"I don't know, but I bet Oogie would want to eat one!" Lock said eagerly, for these waddled about quite clumsily and seemed like they would be much easier to catch than those quick, four-legged woolly beasts from Easter Town. Plus if they tasted as good as the fluffy yellow birds they'd had for breakfast that morning then Lock might like to eat one himself.

"Later. Let's leave the tub here and go case the joint." said Shock, and Barrel flipped the faucet and they trundled behind a small grove of trees to park since it was much easier to be stealthy on their feet than in the big, bulky tub. Shock took her knife and some rope, Lock took the hatchet and a firecracker, and Barrel took their Sandy-Claws-catching sack and his lollipop and they crept down the hill, staying as close to the trees as they could. Some of the black and white little flipper-birds looked at them curiously, but the children still didn't see any humanoid creatures and they once again wondered where everyone was. Before long they came across what could only be described as a fortress made of snow with several piles of snowballs on either side. It reminded them strongly of the stone wall back home that they used as a barrier when they threw rocks, skulls and shrunken heads at one another while playing war games, and Lock was immediately itching for a fight. Why else would there be such a set up? He slid quickly down the snowy hill behind the fort, stuck his hatchet into the side of it for safekeeping and picked up a snowball… then he lobbed the snowball at Barrel, beaning him right in the face and Shock couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey!" spluttered Barrel, wiping the cold, wet snow out of his eyes and he just barely managed to dodge the second snowball that Lock sent his way. The little ghoul ran down the hill towards another pile of snowballs, and he was actually able to walk and stand easier on the snow than his cohorts because his wide feet acted almost like snowshoes. Meanwhile Lock threw a snowball at Shock and it hit the top of her hat and exploded, covering the brim with snow.

"Oh no you don't!" she giggled as she slipped and slid her way down the hill to join in, her instinct to play temporarily overpowering their mission. Lock aimed a second snowball at her, but before he could launch it he was struck in the back by a snowball from Barrel so he quickly turned around and threw it at his younger cohort instead. While Lock's back was turned Shock scooped up a snowball and threw it at him, nailing him right in the back of his head. Lock then narrowed in on her instead of Barrel and she stuck out her tongue as she hurried around to the other side of the fort, squealing and laughing as both boys pelted her with snowballs.

"You're gonna get it now!" Lock hollered, and Shock was too caught up in the fun to remember to tell him to be quiet. Lock started forming a snowball of his own, packing the snow tightly with his hands to make one even bigger than the others. He planned to throw it right in Shock's face and hopefully knock her over, but Barrel decided to take this opportunity while Lock was distracted.

"Hey Lock!" he giggled, and when the little devil turned to look he smacked him right in the face with a big, wet snowball, and even Barrel was surprised because his aim usually wasn't that good.

"Why you…!" Lock spluttered, and he decided to heck with just throwing the snowballs. He chased after his younger cohort and by the time Barrel turned around to run it was too late - Lock grabbed him by the costume and shoved a huge handful of snow right down the back of his pants. Barrel tripped and landed face-first with his pants halfway down his rear, his little bare backside as white as the snow and Lock laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe for a few seconds.

"Ew!" Shock giggled when she poked her head around the side of the fort to see what was going on and why Lock was laughing so hard. Lock pantsed Barrel on a semi-regular basis so it certainly wasn't the first time she'd seen part of his butt, but that didn't make it any less gross. Fortunately for Lock - but unfortunately for Barrel - Lock was much more difficult to pants because his tail helped keep them in place, but that didn't stop Barrel from trying anyway. He struggled to get up but Lock jumped on top of him, holding him down and cramming more snow down his pants until Barrel was finally able to roll over. He made a grab for Lock's clothes with one hand and got a snowball with the other, and despite the distraction of Lock shoving snow in his face Barrel finally managed to yank the little devil's pants down just enough to stuff the snowball in them. Hot-blooded though he may be, even Lock found the snow directly against his naked skin quite unpleasant and he doubled-down on trying to get as much snow under Barrel's clothing as possible in retaliation. Much as Shock really didn't want to see any part of her cohorts's bare bottoms, it was still pretty hilarious and she continued to throw snowballs at them both as they rolled around on the ground. "Boys are so gross!" she cackled, but she really should have known better because all that did was cause Lock and Barrel to team up against her.

"Let's get her!" said Lock with a wicked look on his face, and Shock's eyes widened and she made a run for it as they both got up and pulled their pants all the way back on so they could pursue her. Barrel caught up to her with his wide, snowshoe feet and he tackled her around the middle, sending her hat flying as she fell to the ground. "Hold her down!" Lock yelled gleefully as he caught up to them both, and Shock shrieked and struggled but it was no use. Lock yanked the collar of her dress away from her neck and shoved as much snow down her back as he could, and she swore at the icy cold snow against her bare skin and flailed wildly, then managed to punch him in the jaw and kick Barrel in the leg, dangerously close to his crotch. Barrel decided it would be wise to get off of her before she actually managed to get him where it hurt the most so he rolled away and stood up, bracing himself for an attack from either of his cohorts.

"I'm gonna murder both of you!" Shock threatened through chattering teeth, but before she could enact her revenge there came a loud, musical chime of what sounded like very big bells and they all quickly ducked down behind the fort. In all the fun they had forgotten that there were supposed to be people around and it only just dawned on them how loud they were being - they could only hope those bells weren't an alarm and that Sandy Claws and his minions weren't coming to take them prisoner or worse. All three children peeked cautiously around the fort and suddenly there were many little humanoid creatures rushing through the street, jabbering excitedly together as they went from one building to another.

"There they are! Sandy's helpers. What are they called again?" Barrel whispered, even though they were clearly too far away for anyone to hear them.

"Elves!" Shock answered, keeping her sharp black eyes trained on the flow of said elves and searching for any sign of Sandy Claws himself.

"Where's Sandy Claws?" asked Lock, not bothering to whisper - then he went off on a tangent: "Hey, how cool would it be if I threw the ax at him from here and it hit him in the back? I bet I could do it! That'd take him out for sure!" He grinned evilly and ran his fingertip along the top of the hatchet blade. Barrel agreed that would be quite cool, but before he could say so Shock glared at Lock like he was the stupidest thing she'd ever seen.

"You are the biggest idiot of all time! If we kill Sandy Claws, Jack will kill _us!_ And maybe Oogie Boogie would kill us, too, because we're supposed to bring Sandy to him after Jack!"

"It probably wouldn't kill him! He's magical, remember?" Lock protested. Honestly, Shock was such a party-pooper, always picking apart his awesome ideas.

"Being able to fly up a chimney isn't the same as not dying when someone sticks you with an ax, stupid!" she snarled. Honestly, Lock was such a moron, never taking the time to think for two seconds before spouting off some dumb idea. Lock stuck his tongue out at her, but inside he had to admit that she was right. The trio continued to observe the citizens of Christmas Town, but they didn't see anyone who looked like they might be their target and before too long all of the elves had disappeared into buildings once more. "Weird, I wonder what that was all about?" puzzled Shock.

"Maybe they went to get lunch!" Barrel suggested, for his own growling tummy was telling him it was about that time. They walked back up the hill to where they'd stashed the tub and hurriedly wolfed down their meal of kebab, biscuit and Easter candy - walking through the cold snow used up a lot of energy and their impromptu snowball fight used up even more, so it was fortunate that they'd packed plenty of food. Just as they were headed back down to town the same loud, melodious bells rang out and the trick-or-treaters hid behind the snow fort once more as the elves exited their homes and headed back to wherever they'd come from. It looked like the majority of them were headed in the same direction, so the children decided that was where they should follow and once the streets were empty again they pressed up close against the side of the first building they came to and poked their heads around the corner to get a good look at what seemed to be the main square.

There was a train platform with a small, jolly-looking locomotive parked at it, and not far away from that was a little carousel featuring strange animals that the children didn't recognize and a large gazebo with risers that appeared to be used for concerts. Everything was ridiculously cute and while it wasn't _quite_ as bad as Easter Town, it was still pretty repulsive. Music was playing from what must have been hidden speakers along the streets and the trio thought they recognized a few of the songs from the Halloween Town band practicing them at Jack's behest. "C'mon…" Lock gestured to his cohorts and led them to the largest building, and they pressed their little faces up against a window to look inside.

"Whoa…" said Barrel, and although they stayed quiet, his cohorts definitely agreed. Inside was a bustling factory filled with dozens upon dozens of elves who were busily cranking out dozens upon dozens of toys - and that was just what they could see through one window. They knew in theory about how Sandy made and brought toys to all of the human children, but seeing it in action was incredibly impressive - much more so than their own town's efforts. The Halloween Town citizens may have work ethic and enthusiasm (well, Jack had enthusiasm, at least), but here was a well-oiled Christmas-magic machine… and the temptation to throw a wrench in that well-oiled machine was calling out to the trick-or-treaters little prankster hearts.

"Let's get in there and mess something up!" snickered Lock, but as fun as that sounded, Shock wasn't sure it was the right time.

"Hang on, we gotta be careful! There's enough elves in there to mess _us_ up if we get caught!" she murmured. She was picturing elves attacking her and her cohorts like a swarm of piranhas and she wanted to wait and watch for just a little bit longer to try and determine where all the exits were for this building and how the elves seemed to move around within it, then perhaps they could find the right place and the right time to sneak in without being seen…

"Jack said he lives in the biggest house, so he's gotta be here!" Lock insisted, interrupting her train of thought.

Barrel scratched absently at his little pug nose. "This isn't really a house, though, is it? More like a factory or something."

"Shut up, dummy! Like you know anything!" Lock sneered, but Shock was ignoring them both.

"Look, that building over there is just as big, we need to look in that one, too." She pointed across the street to an equally large building with many chimneys that were pumping out lots of smoke.

"Yeah, maybe Sandy Claws practices going up and down the chimneys in there!" Barrel said, feeling quite proud of his deductive reasoning, but Shock rolled her eyes.

"You're so dumb. Sandy Claws has been going up and down chimneys forever, why the crap would he need to practice?"

Lock snickered and added, "Yeah, just because you stink at everything and have to practice all the time doesn't mean everyone else does."

"I do not!" Barrel pouted, following along begrudgingly behind his cohorts as they made their way over to that second, many-chimneyed building, but he immediately cheered up when they looked in the windows and found another factory - but this one was cranking out cookies very similar to the ones Sally had made for them several weeks ago. "Oooh! Let's go in this one! Sandy Claws likes cookies, so maybe he's in here!" he said gleefully, rubbing his hands together both out of excitement and trying to keep them warm. Secretly he was hoping they could steal some cookies, and fortunately his cohorts agreed with him this time. They snuck around to the back of the building and found what looked like an emergency exit and Lock pulled his handy lock picking set out of his pocket, but the door was already unlocked. When they cracked open the door they were immediately hit with the incredibly strong - and incredibly delicious - scent of gingerbread and peppermint and all three of their mouths began to water. The elves were so focused on their tasks that it was quite easy for the trick-or-treaters to sneak around - though Shock did leave her tall, pointy hat outside to make it easier for her to stay out of sight - and they made their way over to hide behind one of the very large brick ovens that was cranking out a seemingly endless flow of cookies. The bricks were radiating a cozy, comfortable heat and Shock and Barrel stood right up against it to dry the melted snow from their clothes and warm up. Lock stayed just close enough to the bricks to dry out his costume, but before long he was starting to feel a bit too warm and the cookies smelled so good that he was tired of waiting.

"Let's set off the firecracker to distract everybody and then we can steal some cookies!" he whispered.

"Plus maybe Sandy Claws will come and check out the damage!" added Shock, fluffing out her finally-dry dress.

"Yeah, that too!" said Lock, though really all he was concerned about at the moment was acquiring the cookies. Barrel stayed near the conveyor belt where the freshly-baked cookies came out of the oven while Lock and Shock crept over to a machine that was producing a lot of steam to hide behind. She aimed the rocket at a window across the room and Lock pulled a match out of his pocket, lit the fuse, and then the rocket went screaming across the room and broke right through the far window, shattering glass all over the sparkling clean tile floor. Not all of the elves stopped working, but the resulting chaos was enough for Barrel to grab several good handfuls of cookies before all three of them slipped right back out the door and out of sight behind a neighboring building. They ate the cookies while they watched for Sandy Claws, but apparently one broken window wasn't enough to call the king to investigate so eventually they gave up.

"Let's go back to the toy factory, maybe he's in there making sure his slaves aren't slacking off." suggested Lock as he licked the cookie crumbs off of his fingers, and his cohorts nodded in agreement. Then they all three snuck back to the toy factory once again, hoping to coax Sandy Claws out into plain view so they could bag him.


	14. Chapter 14

The toy factory was just as busy as the cookie factory and once again the children had no trouble sneaking inside. It was almost too easy, and all three of them decided that elves must not be very smart - or at least not very observant - but the truth was more likely that they simply weren't expecting three interlopers who were there to cause trouble. The trio kept their eyes peeled for Sandy Claws but he was nowhere to be seen, so then they checked out the toys. Nothing looked even remotely worth stealing, everything was sappy and stupid and while they still thought it was dumb that Jack wanted to take over Christmas, at least the Halloween Town citizens were making better toys than these ones.

"What should we mess up in here to try and get Sandy Claws to come?" Lock asked just loud enough for his cohorts to hear him over the loud machinery. They were all out of firecrackers and he couldn't think of a way to use their remaining tools to cause a ruckus without getting caught.

Barrel was still skeptical that this was where Sandy Claws lived. Who would live in a noisy factory? "If he's even in here…" he said while sucking on his lollipop and Lock slapped him hard on the back of the head, nearly causing him to choke. He was about to smack Lock back, but then Shock smacked both of them.

"Even if he's not in here now, he'll have to come in if we can stop the machines because toys are the whole point of Christmas." she murmured, her sharp mind quickly assessing the situation. Finally she saw a control panel full of buttons across the room with one large lever in the middle labeled 'Emergency Shut-Off' in cutesy red and white striped lettering. "There!" she pointed to it and then they all three quickly ducked again as an elf carrying a gigantic teddy bear walked past them.

"How are we gonna get over there?" whispered Barrel, for the panel was out in plain view and there was nothing to hide behind.

Lock scanned around the room and then looked up to see a network of catwalks and ventilation pipes along the ceiling. He elbowed his older cohort and said, "Up there! We can get up there and throw something at the shut-off switch."

They made their way up the stairs to the catwalks and then very carefully crept along them till they were right over the control panel. "Now what?" asked Barrel. He had no idea what Lock was planning to throw at the lever, but he hoped it wasn't his lollipop.

"I've got a better plan!" said Shock, and she began tying the rope they'd brought into a lasso. All of her practice on Lock the night before paid off, and on the first try she managed to lasso the lever and pull it until it flipped. There was a loud alarm and lots of noise as the machines came to a grinding halt, and Shock quickly gave the rope a skillful wiggle to slip it off of the lever and pulled it back up so that no one would see it. There was a lot of shouting and scurrying about below and the children snickered at the chaos they had caused… but soon it just got boring. The elves began a thorough and obviously well-practiced safety-check routine, certain elves running around with clipboards and marking things while others climbed onto or beneath machines to try and detect the problem, and even though it was boring it was still pretty funny to see the elves searching for a nonexistent problem. It felt like they waited forever and the trick-or-treaters were sure they were about to fall asleep from boredom when finally they saw him: Sandy Claws himself.

"That's gotta be him!" Shock said excitedly, perking up immediately at the sight of their prey.

"Wow, he _is_ really big and fat!" said Barrel, thinking about how difficult it was going to be to get him into their tub.

"You're one to talk!" snickered Lock, and Barrel frowned at him. They couldn't hear what was being said, but Sandy Claws was talking seriously with several of the clipboard-carrying elves and even inspected some of the machines himself, and Shock decided they should head back towards the stairs so they could follow him out when he inevitably left the building.

"Let's get moving." she said, elbowing Lock in the shoulder and the three of them very carefully and quietly scooted back the way they came… but before they even got close to the stairs, an elf flipped the emergency shut-off switch back and the factory started up once more - and Sandy Claws walked out through a door at the complete opposite side of the building from where the trick-or-treaters were. "No!" Shock moaned, because it seemed very likely that they might lose him if they didn't get outside quickly. They hurried as fast as they could while still being stealthy but when they got back out onto the snow-covered street, Sandy Claws was gone. "Crap!" she fumed, unhappy to have missed their target and also to be out in the cold again, but Lock was already thinking up another plan.

"Maybe there's an electrical box outside and we can cut the wires? Then they won't be able to fix it so fast and maybe if he's out here we'll have a better chance of catching him without being attacked by elves."

"He'll probably just have his little minions fix the electrical box, too, just like they fixed the machines!" Shock countered, but she really didn't have any other ideas so they hunted around looking for anything that looked promising, but were unsuccessful. "Dang it!" she swore again. This was turning out to be a trickier mission than she'd anticipated - especially considering all the research they'd done beforehand - and she was starting to feel pretty frustrated. It was getting darker and darker as well as colder and colder, and they would have to head back home before too long and try again the next day if they didn't find Sandy soon. But Lock wasn't out of ideas quite yet.

"Let's go mess up that train we saw earlier!" he said, "Maybe if we blow it up it'll make enough noise that Sandy Claws will come look and then we can follow him to his house! He's _gotta_ come check it out if a train blows up in the middle of his town!"

"We didn't bring any dynamite, moron! We used it all up already back home." Shock hissed, and Lock's face fell. He'd just gotten extremely excited about the idea of blowing up a train only to be reminded that it wasn't possible, but then Shock smiled at him with that wicked little smirk she got when she thought up something really devious and his own face broke into a matching grin once more, eager to hear what she was thinking. "So we're not gonna blow up that train. We're gonna crash it." she said evilly. The boys looked at one another and while they weren't sure how exactly they were going to accomplish it, causing a train wreck sounded like the coolest thing ever. But tragically, when they returned to the main square where the train had been it was nowhere to be seen.

"Aww, no!" Lock pouted, but then they heard the distant whistle of the locomotive from somewhere in the woods.

"That's okay, this is perfect!" said Shock, rubbing her hands together and thinking fast. "Bring the ax." she ordered Barrel as she headed towards the tracks and he did as she said without even questioning it. He was used to being bossed around by his cohorts and besides that he was dying of curiosity to see how Shock was going to stop a train with only an ax. But Lock was starting to work it out in his own head and an absolutely wicked grin spread across his face as he grabbed the hatchet right out of Barrel's hands.

"I wanna do it!" he exclaimed, then ran along the tracks as fast as he could in the deep snow until he found a connection point between two rails. He wished they had a wrench to loosen the enormous bolts connecting the two pieces of metal, but he was pretty sure he could manage it with the ax. His cohorts stepped back a bit as he swung and hit the connecting point with the blunt end of the hatchet as hard as he could… but instead of breaking the track it sent shock waves all the way up his arms as metal struck metal and his cohorts laughed loudly at how comically it made his entire body vibrate. It was funny, but Shock began to worry that her plan might not work after all. Lock was strong, but she suddenly felt foolish for thinking that he'd be strong enough to break a train track with only an ax. Lock, however, wasn't ready to give up and he quickly changed tactics: instead of striking the rail itself, he carefully aimed at the nut holding one of the bolts in place and hit down on it hard. The first hit resulted only in a loud noise and several metallic sparks, but on his second strike the nut actually loosened a tiny bit.

"Nice!" Shock squealed, hopping from one foot to the other and rubbing her arms in an attempt to keep warm and Barrel grinned widely, too excited to feel cold at the moment.

Shock and Barrel kept a lookout while Lock worked, and after about ten hits he had finally loosened the nut enough that he could unscrew it with his hands and moved on to the second nut, and then the third… but then they heard the sound of the train approaching. "Hurry up!" Shock said, and Lock stopped swinging the hatchet just long enough to wipe the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and glare at her.

"Let's see you two do it! Oh wait, I forgot, you're total weaklings!"

Shock wanted to punch him just to prove how not-weak she was and Barrel considered it as well, but deep down they knew that Lock really was the strongest - not to mention the best at using the ax since he was in charge of the firewood at home - so they let him get on with it. Then he hammered against the now nut-less bolts with the blunt end of the hatchet, and while it still sent considerable shock waves up his arms at least this time it also pushed the rail a tiny bit out of alignment as the bolts shifted. Then he wedged the blade in-between the rail and connecting piece of metal and pushed against the handle with all of his body weight and strength. He grunted with effort and his feet slipped in the snow a bit, then he looked over at his friends and gritted, "Come help, dummies!"

They rushed over to him and Shock grabbed the handle as well and pushed with all her might while Barrel put his back against both of them. He planted his feet and pushed backwards as hard as he could, and with his steady weight and pressure added to the mix they finally heard a noisy creak as the hatchet began to drive the tracks apart.

"Keep… pushing!" Lock grunted, and if Shock hadn't been concentrating so hard she would have rolled her eyes at him.

"No… kidding!" she gritted through her teeth. There was another metallic 'creak' as the pieces of rail separated and the sound of the little steam engine got closer still - they were running out of time.

"Yes!" Lock exclaimed triumphantly as they gave it one last mighty heave and the rail finally bent… but then the blade broke right off of the ax handle and he and Shock fell forward on their faces across the track and Barrel fell backwards on top of them, but they hardly cared because they had accomplished their goal.

"Get off of us, fatty!" Shock said as Barrel struggled to his feet, and by now the tracks were starting to vibrate beneath them as the train fast approached. Once Lock was upright again he stuck the ax handle in the now-loosened rail and used it as a lever to scoot the track even farther out of place as the sound of the train got louder and louder, and finally Shock grabbed the back of his shirt and tugged on it firmly. "Come on, we gotta get out of the way! We're busted if someone sees us and if that train comes off the tracks it's gonna kill us!" Lock picked up the broken hatchet so there would be no clue as to what caused the damage and then followed his friends as they ran as fast as they could back into hiding, hoping that they'd managed to knock the track far enough out of place to actually derail the oncoming train. It took about five more minutes for the train to arrive and all three of them waited with bated breath as the little steam engine chugged slowly into view and got closer and closer to the damaged part of track… and while it wasn't as spectacular of a crash as they had been hoping thanks to the slow speed and small size of the train, they had still succeeded. There was a terrible sound of screeching metal and sparks flew as the train slipped out of alignment and into the snow, tipping over the engine and the first three boxcars. Firewood spilled all over the ground from the overturned boxcars and the trio laughed at the destruction. They wondered if anyone had gotten hurt, and their question was answered when an elf wearing a little striped engineer outfit crawled out of the sideways engine. He appeared to be shaken up but not injured and the kids couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed, but at least they'd caused one heck of a mess. More elves came rushing to the scene of the accident and after some initial panic they once again organized and got a little assembly line started to move the firewood to wherever it needed to go. Sandy Claws showed up again much quicker than he had in the toy factory, directing his workers and even helping in the assembly line, but it was so busy and there were so many eyes that the trick-or-treaters didn't stand a chance of getting near him.

"There's too many stupid elves!" Lock grumbled, but they had no choice but to watch and wait and hope they could follow Sandy Claws when he finally went back home. Sandy and the elves worked late into the night cleaning up the mess, and then it suddenly began to snow and Shock couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so miserable. Barrel was quite cold by now as well, and even Lock wasn't feeling as warm as he had before - but he was still warmer than his cohorts so before long Shock swallowed her dignity and scooted as close to him as she could get.

"Get over here!" she said crankily, and Lock looked at her with with part revulsion and part alarm.

"What are you doing? Quit hugging me!" He tried to push her away but she only held on tighter.

"I'm freezing to death and you're warm!"

Barrel thought that was a pretty good idea so he snuggled up close to Lock's other side and the little devil pulled an annoyed face but gave up and let his cohorts latch onto him like two little heat-sucking leeches. He was outnumbered and besides that he didn't want to have to carry their stiff, cold corpses back to the tub… and eventually he had to admit that it was much nicer and warmer to be snuggled up this way and they all watched in silence as the citizens of Christmas Town worked. Finally all of the firewood had been cleared from the wreck and the crowd began to disperse - including Sandy Claws. "Let's go!" Lock whispered, wriggling free from his friends and they tried to circle wide around and follow their target without being spotted by the remaining elves, but it was so dark now that Sandy slipped out of sight and not even Lock's keen eyes could find him again.

"UGH!" Shock groaned and Barrel sighed unhappily. He was cold and wet from the falling snow and his bare feet were numb, and all he wanted to do now was go home and get warm and dry. Lock angrily flung the broken hatchet blade at the nearest tree but it just bounced off of the snow-blanketed branches and didn't do much to release any of his frustration.

"Let's go home. We'll try again tomorrow." he grumbled, picking up the blade and trudging in the direction of the bathtub as his shivering cohorts followed along, and then the only sound was their chattering teeth.

They were completely and utterly exhausted by the time they got back to Halloween Town and Shock and Barrel stayed snuggled up close to their middle cohort as they trundled through the dead forest as fast as the tub could go and finished off the last of their food. Barrel eventually fell asleep but both Lock and Shock felt too wet and uncomfortable to join him. Eventually they made it back to the treehouse and Shock kicked Barrel in the head on purpose to wake him up as she climbed out of the tub and said, "Let's hang our clothes up over the stove again so hopefully they'll be totally dry by tomorrow." While all the boys wanted to do was crawl into bed they had to agree that was a wise idea so they all three changed into their pajamas and met in the kitchen, then Shock pulled over the footstool so she could reach to hang up all of their snow-soaked costumes.

"How much potion do we have left?" she called over her shoulder as she hung up Lock's red shirt.

"Look and see, runt." said Lock in a very crabby tone of voice as he handed Shock his pants, and Barrel stood up on his very tip-toes and stretched out his chubby little fingers as far as they would go, and he was just barely able to touch the bottle of anti-allergy potion on the shelf. He just couldn't _quite_ reach it, but he was so close… so he gave a little hop and made a grab for it but instead of grasping it he knocked it off of the shelf and it smashed all over the floor.

"Whoops…" he mumbled, staring guiltily down at the mess and his cohorts both whipped their heads around to look at it, too.

"Oh nice job, klutz-bucket!" Lock yelled and Shock huffed in exasperation. They were all extremely tired and therefore extremely cranky, and tensions were running high.

"It's not my fault! You know I can't reach!" Barrel said angrily. He was feeling incredibly grumpy and sick of them picking on him.

"He's right. Why didn't _you_ go get it, dirt-brain?" Shock sneered down at Lock, but he ignored her and shouted:

"Way to go, moron! Now we're probably gonna get sick when we go to Christmas Town again! Me and Shock are staying here, you have to go get Sandy Claws by yourself so then _you're_ the only one who's gonna be sneezing and puking!"

Barrel internally began to panic because the thought of having to catch Sandy Claws all by himself was truly terrifying. Lock couldn't be serious, could he? His older cohorts wouldn't _really_ abandon him and leave him in charge of this monumental task, would they? But before his panic could escalate too far Shock gave Lock a nasty look and said:

"Don't be an idiot. We'll just have to go ask Sally for some more. Which is a big fat waste of time…" she narrowed her eyes on Barrel accusingly, "…but not the end of the world."

"I'm not an idiot, _he's_ the idiot!" Lock snapped, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at Barrel.

"Fine, you're both idiots!" Shock said impatiently, and Lock completely lost his temper and angrily kicked the stool she was standing on right out from under her before she even saw it coming. She shrieked in surprise as she fell and her face hit the edge of the stove before she landed on her rear end on the floor. "OW!" she yelled, slapping a hand to her mouth and Barrel began to giggle while Lock took a few steps away from her in case she tried to kick him. Shock's mouth hurt like it had never hurt before and - horrifyingly - when she ran her tongue around she found that one of her teeth had been knocked loose and she spat it out into her hand. "YOU KNOCKED OUT MY TOOTH!" she screamed as Lock and Barrel both started laughing, and this act of violence helped dissipate Lock's frustration with the crappy day they had just had and he felt much better.

"Big deal, you know it'll just grow back!" he said casually, but he had no way of knowing that for sure. It was true that his own teeth grew back, but they weren't certain that was the case for witches and even though Shock wanted nothing more than to murder him right then and there, she also didn't want to lose the tooth just in case it didn't grow back.

"I am SO going to kill you! And I'm gonna do it so slow that you'll _wish_ you were already dead!" she snarled as she stood up, clutching her tooth tightly in one hand and rubbing her sore backside with the other.

"Whatever, your teeth are already super gappy, so who cares that you've got another gap now?" Lock smirked as he started a fire in the oven, and Barrel giggled even harder.

Shock's eyelid twitched in absolute rage as she stormed out of the room to put her tooth somewhere safe for the night and go to bed. "You are SO lucky that we still have to get Sandy Claws or you'd be dead meat right now. You've got two more days to live, and then you'd better start sleeping with one eye open!" she shouted from the hall, but the boys only laughed before heading to their own rooms to finally, _finally_ get some rest.


	15. Chapter 15

Shock woke up the next day after dreaming up a wide variety of ideas for enacting revenge on stupid old Lock all night, and she decided that as soon as they were done catching Sandy Claws she would slip him some deadly nightshade and pull every last one of his teeth out with pliers. She was still irritated with him, but having a good night's sleep had made her considerably less crabby than they'd all felt the night before and knowing that she had a good plan for revenge enabled her to set her irritation aside and get back to the business at hand. She tucked her dislodged tooth safely inside a little bottle on a chain that she sometimes wore around her neck and headed out into the kitchen to fix breakfast, but to her surprise she found Barrel on the footstool in front of the stove, already dressed and attempting to fry some eggs.

"Hi." he said cautiously, scooting the eggs around with a spatula to try and keep them from burning. While usually he waited for Shock to make breakfast, he'd been reluctant to wake her this morning considering how mad she probably was about her missing tooth. Plus he was still feeling rather guilty about ruining the last of their potion and he wanted to show that he wasn't a useless baby like his older cohorts were always accusing him of being.

"Where'd you get eggs?" Shock asked, poking her head over his shoulder to check how he was doing.

"They're from Easter Town."

"Oh yeah… I forgot about those. Good thinking." It was rare that Shock told him he had good ideas and he stood up a little straighter, feeling quite proud of himself. "Turn the heat down a little, and let's add some of the Easter bugs, too." she instructed, leaning over to turn the stove knob.

"How's your tooth?" Barrel asked as she went to get one of the jars of dried insects.

"You mean how's the hole in my mouth where my tooth used to be before stupid Lock made me fall?"

"Yeah. Do you think it'll grow back like his do?"

"I dunno." she shrugged, sprinkling some of the bugs into the eggs as Barrel kept scooting them around. "It doesn't matter, though, I'll just have Dr. Finkel-freak put it back in. We have to go there today anyway." She was unwilling to go with an extra gap in her mouth for any longer than absolutely necessary, and she was quite sure that the doctor could replace it in no time at all considering how skilled he was at things like that. Maybe he could even do it in the same amount of time as it took Sally to make them more potion, so they wouldn't waste any more time getting back to their mission.

"Sorry about spilling the potion yesterday." Barrel said sheepishly. If they didn't catch Sandy Claws in time because of his mistake, his cohorts would never let him forget it and he was afraid of how badly he would be punished once Jack found out.

Shock noticed how worried he looked and she took some pity on her littlest friend. Poor Barrel, he always tried so hard but he was just so inept. "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault you're a shrimp. Lock should have checked the bottle." It was rather a backhanded acceptance of his apology, but Barrel decided not to complain because it was better than her being mad at him. "Where is that moron anyway?" she asked, screwing the insect jar shut again.

"We forgot to set the traps last night so he went outside to find something to send down to Oogie Boogie." said Barrel, and Shock felt the blood drain from her face for an instant - they had been so tired and cranky last night that they had completely forgotten the most important task of all. She shook it off and went to fill the tea kettle with water. Lock was a good hunter so surely he'd manage to catch something to keep their master appeased, and indeed, by the time she'd taken the kettle off the heat and added the tea Lock returned holding a cage full of bugs in one hand and a snake in the other.

"How's your face, gappy?" he smirked as he dumped the cage down the chute of Oogie's shrine.

"Fine, no thanks to you." she said loftily with her nose in the air as she poured the hot tea into three cracked mugs.

"Happy to help!" he said slyly but Shock ignored him, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of an angry response. He was holding the snake tightly around the neck just below it's head so it couldn't bite him with it's sharp fangs, and it took him a moment to disentangle the snake from where it had wrapped around his arm and quickly toss it down the chute as well.

While Barrel's eggs weren't as good as Shock's usually were, they weren't half bad and they ate their breakfast without complaint and discussed the next order of business. "Okay, after we get the tub loaded up we'll go get more potion from Sally since klutzy over here fed it all to the floor last night. What food do we have left?" Lock asked as he dumped a rather large amount of salt on his eggs.

"We've got a lot of kebabs and biscuits left." Shock answered and Barrel nodded.

"Yeah, and a ton more Easter eggs."

After they loaded up the tub with all of their various weapons, rope, firecrackers and Sandy-Claws-catching sack (as well as lunch) Shock got dressed and they headed to Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. Even though they hated to waste the time, they took the long way around outside of town because they were hoping to avoid Jack. Two days before Christmas was cutting it way closer than they had intended and they feared the Pumpkin King's wrath. Where had the time gone? They lumbered all the way up to the front door of the laboratory and Lock stood on the edge of the tub to reach and push the doorbell. After a few minutes the door creaked open and Sally looked down at the three little trick-or-treaters.

"Oh, hello!" she said happily, dusting flour off of her apron. She didn't see any visible injuries on any of them so she assumed they were here regarding their super-secret mission and not for more healing poultice.

"Hello, Miss Sally." Shock said in her sweetest voice.

"Nice to see you again, Miss Sally." said Lock in his smoothest, most charismatic voice while giving her the most charming smile he was capable of.

"Hi." Barrel said with a big grin.

Sally smiled, "Would you like to come in? I've just finished some Christmas pies."

The children nodded excitedly, hopped out of the tub and followed her inside - they couldn't remember the last time they'd gotten to eat pie. She led them to the kitchen and they all climbed up onto the same seats they'd taken the first time they'd visited while Sally pulled a piping hot pie out of the oven. It looked absolutely delicious and smelled even better, and Barrel decided that Sally was his new favorite person because no other adult besides Oogie Boogie ever fed them - not willingly, at least. Shock decided that she rather liked Sally as well and that they should keep their pranks on her to a minimum, and even Lock decided that Sally wasn't too bad. He still planned to play some tricks on her later, but not so many that she stopped giving them food and useful potions.

"What can I do for you three?" she asked as she placed an enormous slice of pie and a fork in front of each of them. She was becoming quite fond of the children and found that she very much enjoyed feeding them. Sure, they could be naughty little things, but she'd come to understand that was just part of their being trick-or-treaters. Besides, they hadn't done anything _too_ awful to her yet and they had been visiting her more than almost anybody else lately, and Sally always appreciated outside company.

"We ran out of the stuff you made us so we don't get sick." Barrel said through a huge mouthful of pie, conveniently leaving out the part about him spilling it all over the floor.

"Can we have some more? Please?" Shock said.

"We need to go to Christmas Town one more time." finished Lock before taking a big swig of the pumpkin juice Sally handed him.

"I'd be happy to, but I think I might be out of one of the ingredients. Let me check…" She went to her herb cupboard and looked inside. "I'm afraid I'm all out of astragalus. I'll need to get more before I can make your potion, but I've got more pies in the oven still so it will be a little while."

"We're kind of in a hurry." Shock said, struggling to keep her voice polite when inside she was extremely anxious. They _had_ to get to Christmas Town! Plus she really wanted to get her tooth fixed as soon as possible.

Sally nodded in understanding and said, "Why don't you three go to the market and pick some up and bring it back here? Just one bunch will do. Let me get you some money."

The children looked at one another as the rag doll walked unsteadily out of the room. She was actually trusting them with her money? Sure, Jack had offered them money on multiple occasions, but that didn't count. That was charity and they were too proud to accept hand-outs, but this was a mission and that was entirely different. They would have been happier just stealing the ingredient, but they doubted that Sally would let them and they didn't want to risk getting caught and forced to spend time working off the debt so they accepted the dull silver coins she placed in each of their hands and hurried off to town on foot and straight to the herbalist shop. "We need some astgulargus." Lock said as he slammed his coins onto the counter, feeling quite mature and important.

"It's astarlagus, stupid!" Shock said snottily, but then she felt quite embarrassed when the monster behind the counter corrected her:

"You mean astragalus?"

"Yeah, whatever, that one!" Shock tried to make it sound like she didn't care, but she hated that Lock and Barrel were snickering at her.

The shopkeeper squinted suspiciously at them all. "Where did you three get money?"

"Sally gave it to us!" Barrel said defiantly, slamming his coins on the countertop next to Lock's. Shock held onto her coins - they didn't know yet how much the herb cost and she wasn't about to overpay.

"You mean you stole it from her." the shopkeeper said rather unpleasantly.

"No we didn't! She gave it to us so we could get astragalus for her! Why would we want some dumb herb like that?" Lock sneered.

"Yeah, if we were gonna steal money we'd spend it on something better than this!" added Shock.

The shopkeeper was skeptical, but she really had no proof that the children were lying so she accepted the money. "How much do you want?"

"One bunch." said Shock, and she was glad that she hadn't had to hand over her coins.

"Wait here. Don't touch anything or I'll give you a walloping!" the monster threatened, but the children rolled their eyes because there was no way she could give them half the walloping that Oogie Boogie sometimes gave them so they weren't scared in the slightest. They quickly looked around for something to break or steal, but the shopkeeper was back in a flash and slid the herbs and a few tarnished copper coins across the countertop. "Here's the change. Now get out of here."

"No problem, ugly." Shock said nastily as she took the bundle of astragalus and coins, and her cohorts laughed as they headed for the door - but before they exited, Lock kicked a basket full of some other little herb bundles over and they all three laughed even louder and slammed the door behind them, cutting off the sound of the shopkeeper's angry shouts. They headed back across town towards the laboratory, completely intending to stay on track but then something caught their eye that threw their discipline right out the window: a crate full of bags of unpopped popcorn and several barrels of soda were stacked up in an alley next to Clown's food cart, but Clown was nowhere to be seen.

"We have _got_ to go back and get the tub!" Lock whispered, rubbing his hands together. They really didn't need any more food quite yet but it wasn't often that they had the opportunity to steal popcorn for their machine and that much soda, and suddenly they forgot that they were supposed to be fetching supplies for Sally and that they were in somewhat of a hurry.

"What if it's all gone before we get back?" whispered Barrel.

"Then you'd better hurry up, hadn't you?" said Shock, and Lock snickered.

"Why do I always have to go?" Barrel whined.

"Because you're the fastest runner." Lock said with a mean grin, and Shock outright snort-laughed. Barrel looked a bit more upset by that jab than they'd expected, so in a rare moment of kindness Shock added:

"Because the tub likes you the best, you know that."

That made him feel a tiny bit better because he was pretty sure it was true, but he still wasn't excited about all the extra walking. Still, if it was for popcorn and soda then it was worth it. "Okay, fine. Just don't do anything dumb before I get back and screw everything up." he muttered, then hurried back towards the laboratory.

Lock and Shock stayed crouched behind a nearby dumpster and began brainstorming strategies to acquire the soda and popcorn, occasionally poking their heads out to make sure their target hadn't moved. But just when they thought they had a pretty good plan of attack figured out there was a sudden, brisk voice from behind them and they both jumped and looked up in terror.

"Good afternoon, you two." said Jack, and while his tone was technically polite it was also incredibly stern and both children felt a wave of panic wash over them. "May I ask where Barrel is and why Sandy Claws is not yet currently being kept comfortable here in Halloween Town? And since Sandy is _not_ yet currently being kept comfortable here in Halloween Town, may I ask **_why_** the three of you aren't currently in Christmas Town fetching him _right now_?" It was obvious that Lock and Shock had been eyeing the popcorn and soda and while Jack generally tried to discourage them from stealing, he really wasn't concerned with that right at this moment. What concerned him was that they _still_ hadn't completed their assignment and he could only assume it was because they hadn't really been trying, for he was quite confident that they were sneaky enough to manage it. He would have been a bit more understanding if they had tried their best and still not succeeded, but it appeared that they were just messing around and he was at the end of his patience. He raised one brow ridge as he waited for their answer, and when they remained silent he said, "Well?"

Lock and Shock were too rattled by the Pumpkin King's sudden - and angry - appearance to think up a lie quite as quickly as they normally could, and when Lock finally spoke he didn't sound nearly as smooth and convincing as he usually did.

"Uh, Barrel forgot some stuff we need for Christmas Town, so he had to go home really quick."

"Yeah, he'll be back soon!" added Shock.

Jack frowned. "What 'stuff' would that be?"

"Uh…" Lock was drawing a complete blank, but fortunately Shock spoke up again:

"He went for the bathtub so we can carry Sandy back in it!"

Lock nodded vigorously, but Jack frowned even more. "That's a pretty amateur mistake for you three, isn't it?" he said and the children looked up at him sheepishly, then Lock shrugged and tried to recover himself.

"Well, it's just that we're just really excited about Christmas and - " He tried to sound innocent and earnest, but Jack wasn't having any of it and he held up one bony finger and Lock immediately shut his mouth.

"I am not interested in excuses. That answers my first question. Now the second two."

"We've been trying, Jack, honest!" Shock insisted, but Jack knew that 'honest' was one of the least appropriate words to use to describe the trio.

"Yeah, really! We've been to Christmas Town already and Sandy Claws was hard to find, but we found him yesterday so we know right where to go this time!" Lock lied, and Shock nodded.

Jack put his hands on his narrow hips. "You are aware, I am sure, that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. And you are also aware, I hope, that I expect you to have Sandy Claws here before tomorrow evening or else you will be in _very_ big trouble - and _not_ the fun kind of trouble!"

"We're going back as soon as Barrel comes back with the tub! We're gonna get him!" Shock said, and she and Lock both held out their hands to show that they weren't crossing their fingers.

"We promise!" they said together.

"You just make sure that you do. Remember: **Big.** **Trouble.** " Jack said, giving them one more very frightening look before turning around and striding away, then he called over his shoulder, "And don't even _think_ about touching that popcorn and soda! If you want some, you must ask Clown first!"

"Okay, Jack!" said Lock.

"You got it, Jack!" added Shock, though neither of them had any intention of asking Clown for anything. When it came to stealing food, begging forgiveness when caught was better than asking permission and despite the lecture they'd just received, popcorn and soda were too special to leave behind so it was worth taking the risk. As soon as Barrel got back they parked the tub as close to the popcorn and soda as possible while still staying hidden, then Shock and Lock filled him in on the plan - and the little ghoul was not pleased with it.

"Are you guys crazy?! I'm not doing that!" he hissed, his round eyes growing even rounder.

"Why not, are you scared or something? You're such a baby!" Lock mocked him, and Barrel turned to look across the square at the corral full of Dr. Finkelstein's creepy skeletal reindeer, trying to decide what to do. The truth was that he _was_ a little scared… his cohorts wanted him to sneak over and unlock the corral and shoo all of the reindeer out into the main square to cause a massive distraction, since stealing the barrels of soda would require them to take the tub out of it's hiding spot. But the reindeer were quite large and Barrel was quite small, and there were eight of them and only one of him. The odds of not getting trampled didn't seem to be in his favor, but on the other hand he was tired of his cohorts calling him a scaredy cat and he really, _really_ wanted soda and popcorn. Mustering up as much courage as he had, he pulled his pants up a little higher and took a deep breath, then crept off towards the paddock as his friends stifled their wicked giggles. When he arrived he looked through the metal bars up at the reindeer and gulped. They were some of the coolest, scariest-looking creatures he'd ever seen and he liked being close enough to get a good look at them… but he didn't really want to go inside the corral with them. They smelled like bone and electricity and that strange chemical smell that came along with Dr. Finkelstein's particular sort of life-giving magic, and their joints creaked and their sharp hooves clacked against the cobblestones as they shifted about, chewing on the dry, dead grasses that had been placed in their paddock.

"Hi, reindeer." Barrel said quietly, but the beasts ignored him. When no one was watching he climbed up the metal bars so he could reach to unlatch the gate, then he hopped down and pushed the gate wide open. He hoped the reindeer would just run through on their own… but they didn't. They just stood around chewing nonchalantly and Barrel threw a look across the square at his cohorts. Lock gave him a thumbs-up but Shock pointed at her wrist as if gesturing to a watch before mouthing 'hurry up!' so he once again rallied his courage and slipped inside the paddock, squeezed as close to the bars as he could and scooted around until he was behind the herd. "Go on out, reindeer!" he whispered, but still the creatures paid him no mind. "Go out!" he said a little bit louder, not wanting to shout in case someone recognized his voice, but it was no use. The reindeer wouldn't budge, so he took a deep breath and pulled back his hand… and then smacked the nearest reindeer on the leg as hard as he possibly could and made a loud, weird-sounding shriek that he hoped would disguise his voice - and happily, it worked. The reindeer startled and ran into its neighbor, and soon all eight of them stampeded out of the corral and into the square, kicking and snorting and running amok, knocking over stacks of boxes and toys and stepping on others - and a few of them even flew off of the ground a bit. Barrel ran from the scene of the crime as fast as he could, and as the nearby townspeople all rushed to contain the beasts Lock and Shock leapt into action: Lock ran to the popcorn to start grabbing as many bags as he could carry while Shock brought the tub next to the soda, then Lock tossed the popcorn bags into the tub as Shock climbed out of it - and then the two of them worked together to heave one of the heavy barrels of soda into the tub, trying not to shake it up too much.

"I want to ride one of those things!" Lock whispered, watching the show out of the corner of his eye and wishing he was riding one of them right at that moment.

"You know that they fly, right?" Shock whispered back, thinking about how funny it would be to see Lock fall off of one of them.

"No duh, that's what would make it so wicked!" he grinned as they loaded the first barrel and went back for a second.

Shock was actually quite fond of animals and though she had never really considered herself the kind of girl who would like a pony, these skeletal reindeer were so creepy and cool that she found she was jealous that Barrel had gotten to get up close to them and she wished she would have gotten to do it, too. She just hoped there would be time to get close to them later, and maybe if Jack was really pleased with them for catching Sandy Claws he would let her and Lock ride one. And Barrel as well, if he wasn't too scared, she snickered to herself. "Yeah, that would be super wicked!" she agreed as they rolled the second barrel of soda into the tub. Lock was about to go for a third but Shock noticed that five of the eight reindeer were rounded up already and she thought they'd better quit while they were ahead. "Forget it, let's just get a few more popcorn bags and beat it before someone sees us!" she whispered, and much as Lock hated doing what she said, getting caught right now after the lecture Jack had just given them would be terrible so he complied. Barrel met them behind the building and they took off towards the lab just as the paddock gate slammed shut with all of the reindeer behind it.


	16. Chapter 16

"Here." said Shock as she handed Sally the bundle of astragalus. She kept the remaining money in her pocket and was happy that the rag doll didn't ask for it back.

"Perfect, I'll get started right away." Sally said kindly as she pulled out a cauldron to place on the stove. Lock and Barrel were eyeing the leftover pie, but Shock had something else on her mind.

"Um, there's one more thing…" she said hesitantly. Now that the moment of truth had arrived, she was a little bit nervous about going on the mad doctor's operating table. She kind of wished that Sally could come up with her to make sure Dr. Finkelstein didn't do anything awful, but that would mean taking time away from acquiring the potion and they had already wasted so much time. But she just couldn't stand that awful emptiness where her tooth should be, so she called upon all her bravery and said, "Do you think Dr. Finkelfre - I mean, stein, can put my tooth back in? I lost one yesterday and it's driving me crazy." Lock and Barrel started snickering and Shock shot them a nasty glare.

"Oh no, what happened?" Sally said with more concern than they'd ever had directed towards them by anyone, and even though Shock had been pretending to be well-behaved whenever they talked to Sally she couldn't help being honest with her answer now.

"That idiot made me fall and hit my face." she pointed to Lock.

"It wasn't my fault!" he said, but it was a bald-faced lie and he couldn't stop grinning naughtily.

Sally didn't think it was her place to discipline or negotiate conflicts between them so she only smiled down sympathetically at the cranky-looking little witch and said, "I'm sure the doctor will be happy to help. Just go up to the fifth floor and knock on the door and ask. He'll probably be done by the time I finish your potion - maybe even before."

"Okay." Shock said as she headed out the kitchen door and Lock followed her. "What are you doing? Go away, butthead!" she snapped at him, starting to feel annoyed all over again.

"I wanna see him put your tooth back in. Maybe it'll be bloody and gross!"

Shock frowned and considered pushing him down the ramp, but secretly she felt a little bit glad to have him come with her - if nothing else that meant there would be a witness if Dr. Finkelstein did something terrible to her. Barrel thought about following as well, but he was pretty scared of the doctor - playing pranks on him out in town was one thing, but doing it here in his domain was quite another. Who knew what tricks he might have up his sleeve? And besides that, there was still a lot of pie left and he was hoping that maybe Sally would give him another piece so he stayed put… and sure enough, as soon as his cohorts were out the door she turned to him and said, "Would you like some more pie?" He nodded eagerly and stabbed his fork into the slice before she even got the plate set all the way down on the table in front of him and Sally chuckled to herself. Ghouls were known to have quite an appetite, and it seemed that Barrel was no exception.

"Where'd you learn to cook so good?" he asked as he watched Sally take yet another pie out of the oven and then start work on their potion.

"Well, that's why the doctor made me. I guess he programmed a lot of those things in my mind to begin with, and since then I've spent a lot of time reading and practicing." She didn't want to think about just how much time she'd spent reading and practicing all alone, not to mention the constant cleaning. It was so boring doing the same menial labor day after day, and not even her healthy imagination and frequent daydreams about freedom (and a certain tall, elegant skeleton) could completely alleviate her restlessness. As she watched the little ghoul unselfconsciously stuffing his face in front of her she thought about him and his friends and wondered what it must be like to be a child - and a perpetual one, at that. She had been brought into consciousness as a fully-grown woman with all of a woman's thoughts and feelings, and part of her mourned the childhood that she'd never had. The trick-or-treaters seemed so carefree and wild and she envied them that, but on the other hand she thought it was a little bit sad that they would never grow up. At least, Sally didn't _think_ they would ever grow up… she wasn't really sure. All she knew was that they had been children for a very long time, so if they _were_ growing then they were doing so extremely slowly. She also wasn't sure exactly how long they had been in Halloween Town, but she knew it was longer than she herself and she thought it was a little bit funny that they were technically older than her. She was snapped out of her thoughts when Barrel piped up:

"Shock's really good at cooking, but I'm not. And Lock's even worse at it than I am."

Like Shock and her sewing, Sally hoped that perhaps this was an opening to invite a little more interaction with one of the children so she said, "If you'd like to learn how to cook better I'd be very happy to teach you."

Barrel didn't say anything for a moment, he just sat there thinking and chewing. On one hand that might be a little bit interesting and it would be nice to be able to show off in the kitchen to his cohorts - plus if he could cook better then he wouldn't be as dependent on Shock and Oogie Boogie to feed him. But on the other hand, work was work and why would he want to work when there was so much playing to be done? He really couldn't make up his mind so he just said, "Maybe."

"Okay." Sally smiled at him as she sprinkled the astragalus into the bubbling cauldron. It was a better response than Shock had given her about sewing lessons, so she was happy with it.

Speaking of Shock, she and Lock were just about to Dr. Finkelstein's study on the fifth floor and the closer they got, the more nervous they got. Shock was beginning to second-guess her decision but she didn't want to chicken out now, not in front of Lock, so she set her jaw resolutely and continued up the ramp. Lock masked his nervousness by continuing to tease her. "What if he won't put it back in? Or what if he sticks it in your eyeball or up your big nose instead of in your big mouth?"

"What if I stick my foot in _your_ big mouth?" Shock grumbled.

"What if he chops you up and sews you back together like Sally, except he does it all weird and wrong so you look even uglier?"

"What if I push your weird and wrong butt down this ramp?!"

Lock snickered but secretly he was a little bit worried about all of the things he'd just said. He liked messing with her and it was funny when she got a little bit hurt, but Shock was still one of his only two very best friends in the whole wide world and he really didn't want anything _too_ bad to happen to her. He decided that if the mad doctor tried anything funny he would tip over his wheelchair and kick him in the brain before grabbing Shock and making their dramatic escape. By then they had reached the fifth floor and Shock rapped on the door as hard as she could. "What is it, Sally?" came Dr. Finkelstein's voice, and Lock and Shock looked at one another, unsure of what to do. Finally Lock went ahead and pushed open the door and they went in to find the doctor parked in front of a desk with a large stack of musty-looking books piled on top of it, poking at his brain with one hand. He turned to look at them and his duck-like lips immediately curled into a sneer. "What in Halloween are you two doing here?" He slammed the top of his head back down and wheeled slowly towards them wearing a very menacing expression. "If you've destroyed anything I'll fuse your heads together. That'll slow you down!"

"We didn't break anything!" insisted Lock, and Shock nodded.

"I just lost a tooth. Can you put it back in? Please." She held up the little bottle containing her tooth and the doctor raised one eyebrow suspiciously at them.

"Then why are _you_ here?" he said, pointing to Lock.

Lock couldn't help but puff his chest out a bit aggressively and put his hands on his hips. "Because she's my friend! And I wanna see if it's gross when you put it back in."

Dr. Finkelstein didn't show it, but inside he was just a tiny bit amused by that answer. He was pretty sure the little devil was as dumb as a box of rocks, but he appreciated Lock's enthusiasm for all things violent and horrifying. Shock, on the other hand, might have made a decent little lab assistant if she wasn't such a disobedient troublemaker, and the doctor thought it was a shame for a potentially promising brain to be wasted on a naughty little hooligan like her. He leaned down a bit closer to them and murmured, "Where's the third one of you?"

"Barrel's stuffing his face with pie in the kitchen with Sally." said Lock, and Dr. Finkelstein made a mental note to scold that headstrong rag doll for even letting the trick-or-treaters into the laboratory, let alone feeding them. He scrutinized them for another moment before pressing a button on the wall and speaking into a little funnel-looking thing:

"Igor. Meet me in the operating room."

The children trailed along after him to the very top of the building and into the operating room, and Lock cringed a bit at the memory of the first and last time he was here when the doctor had reattached his tail after an accident with a guillotine. Igor was waiting for them and Dr. Finkelstein addressed him in a very no-nonsense manner while pointing at Lock, "Keep an eye on this one and if he tries to cause any mischief, correct him with the portable neuromuscular incapacitation electroshock module." Igor looked way too excited about whatever the doctor had just said as he staggered over to retrieve some sort of handheld device, and while the children didn't understand a word of it, it didn't sound good. Fortunately Dr. Finkelstein explained: "That means if you do anything but stand here quietly, Igor will shock you with an electrical jolt that will be extremely painful and cause you to lose control of your neuromuscular function - which means your body. Possibly including your urinary bladder. And I don't want to have to make Sally clean that up."

Lock had definitely understood the part about extreme pain, but he didn't know what a 'urinary bladder' was. He didn't want to sound dumb in case Shock knew, but he was just too curious not to ask. "What's a urinary bladder?"

"It means you'll pee yourself." the doctor answered, and Lock was glad he asked because while he didn't like looking dumb in front of Shock, he _really_ didn't want to pee himself in front of _anyone_. Shock couldn't help but giggle despite her nervousness, and she hoped that Lock would say or do something rash and get shocked because if he peed his pants she'd be able to make fun of him about it for the rest of his existence. But then Dr. Finkelstein looked at her sharply and said, "And you! Get on the table and lie still or you'll get it, too!" so she quickly stopped laughing and climbed up onto the operating table and lay still. "Do you have the missing tooth or do I need to get one out of my inventory?" he asked as he wheeled up to her.

"I have it." she said quietly and she unscrewed the bottle lid and dropped her precious tooth into the doctor's black-gloved hand. She wanted to ask how long it would take but didn't want to risk angering him, but happily he then said:

"This will only take a minute. Now open your mouth wide and hold still, this injection will sting initially but then you won't feel a thing."

Her eyes widened in fear as he pulled out a syringe and Lock stood up on his tip-toes to try and see in case he needed to push over Dr. Finkelstein's wheelchair and rescue Shock… but he kept an eye on Igor and the horrible device that would hurt and maybe make him pee his pants. Lock knew that if _he_ had such a device he would use it on everyone he could at every available opportunity and he wondered if it was at all possible for him to come back later and steal it. Shock winced a bit but tried to stay still as the doctor injected the syringe into her gums near the hole where her tooth belonged, but then - as promised - the area went completely numb. He fussed around in her mouth with several small metal tools and within only a moment he wheeled away from her and grumbled, "There, you're all finished. Now off with you both, and try to stay intact for longer than a week!" Shock hopped off of the table and she and Lock darted out of the operating room without a word as fast as their little legs would take them.

"We _gotta_ try and steal that neumomascula incapitishun electrical thingie sometime!" Lock said as they hurried back down to the kitchen, and while Shock was almost positive that wasn't the right word for it, she didn't know what it was actually called either so she let it slide.

"Good idea, then me and Barrel can 'correct' you whenever you're being a jerk. You'd better steal some diapers first because you're gonna be peeing your pants pretty much nonstop!" she cackled.

"Whatever, _you're_ the one who's gonna need diapers!" he laughed wickedly back at her, now even more determined to steal this highly-entertaining-sounding torture device. They had both forgotten the part about it causing extreme pain and were just focusing on the hilarity of making each other pee themselves.

"Why does Shock need diapers?" Barrel asked as his cohorts came running into the kitchen and back onto their chairs, hoping for another piece of pie. Did Dr. Finkelstein do something terrible to her after all? Barrel _knew_ it was a mistake to go to the mad doctor for help!

"Because I'm gonna shock her urinary bladder with the neumeruscluar icasapacion electric modular!" Lock laughed evilly, and Barrel didn't know what on earth he was talking about but he giggled along anyway. Then Lock remembered that Sally was in the room with them so he quickly added, "I mean, I would if I had one!"

But Sally only smiled at him and said, "The potion needs about three more minutes. Think you can finish another piece of pie in three minutes?"

"Definitely!" they all said together, then scarfed down their slices and Barrel was happy because he'd gotten three pieces while his cohorts had only gotten two.

"Good luck in Christmas Town!" Sally called to them from the front laboratory steps as they headed off in the the tub with their fresh bottle of potion and they all three waved back at her without even thinking about it, for at this point they definitely needed all the luck they could get. Sally watched them go until they were out of sight, then sighed to herself before heading back into the lab to get cleaned up - Jack was due to stop by in a few hours for a final Sandy-Claws-costume fitting and she wanted to look her best. Anxiety gnawed at her gut as she wondered yet again what he could possibly have the children doing that required so many trips to Christmas Town, but by now she knew better than to ask him. If their mission was really as top-secret as they said then she doubted Jack would tell her the details, plus at this point it seemed clear that he was determined to progress with his Christmas plans no matter how many times she tried to convince him it was a mistake. Dr. Finkelstein was constantly telling her that she was the most stubborn creature he'd ever known, but Sally thought that Jack probably had her beat when it came to that.

 **Author Note: Now I kind of want to write a story in 'Continuing Adventures' about them successfully stealing the portable neuromuscular incapacitation module and using it on one another, LOL! What do you think, dear readers, should I do it? Is it hilarious or just gross? Or both? :D**


	17. Chapter 17

Sally wasn't the only one feeling anxious. Shock and Barrel were openly fretting about the fact that the day was way more than halfway over and they had yet to even set foot in the forest, let alone Christmas Town. Lock was feeling anxious, too, but he felt that as the leader it was his duty to project an air of confidence so he said, "Don't worry, we'll just drop off the popcorn and soda, eat lunch and then go right to Christmas Town. We'll get him this time, I can feel it!" and he sounded so certain that his cohorts relaxed a little bit.

"What should we do when we get there this time?" asked Barrel.

"Well, Jack said that he lives in the biggest house there. We already checked the two biggest buildings and they weren't houses, so we should just keep checking the buildings in order from the next biggest to the smallest." Shock reasoned.

"Yeah, that's probably the best plan." Lock said, and Shock was surprised and pleased that he agreed with her. She was expecting him to counter her idea with something extremely unsubtle like setting fire to or blowing up every building in Christmas Town and for the first time in her existence she was actually glad that they were all out of explosives. Perhaps Lock was capable of rational thought after all? Then he continued, "He should be easiest to get at his house, unless he lives with a bunch of elves or something. But then we'll just have to take all of them out, too!" He gave his cohorts an incredibly evil grin and Shock rolled her eyes. Nope, he was definitely still an idiot.

"If you want to get murdered by a bunch angry elves that's your problem. Me and Barrel will take Sandy Claws back to Jack and get all the reward while you're getting stomped by Christmas midgets!" she said, and Lock frowned at her.

"Well **_I_** could take them out, it's not my fault you and Barrel are weak _Halloween_ midgets!" he sneered, even though Shock was actually considerably taller than he was and both she and Barrel could hold their own against him well enough. "What kind of trick-or-treaters are you, anyway?" Lock continued, "I don't even remember the last time you played a trick!"

Barrel didn't think that was a very fair thing to say considering that it had been Shock who lassoed the emergency shut-off lever in the toy factory and came up with the idea to break the train tracks, and that Barrel himself had taken the risk of letting out all of those reindeer. Shock was also very aware of this injustice and she wished she had the neuromuscular incapacitation module to zap Lock with right then and there - maybe _that_ would be a good enough trick to satisfy that rotten little devil. As it was, she grabbed one of the bags of unpopped popcorn and smacked him with it repeatedly, and Barrel followed her lead.

"Ow!" Lock yelped as his cohorts battered him from both sides with the bags of hard kernels and he wasn't sure which one of them to attack first.

"See? You can't even take on both of _us_ , let alone a billion elves!" Shock taunted him, so he tried to lunge at her but then Barrel started smacking him in the head with two popcorn bags at the same time. Lock didn't want to go down without a fight, but the tub was so full of the soda barrels and popcorn in addition to all of their Sandy-Claws-catching-equipment that he couldn't move around very well and Shock and Barrel were relentless in their assault so he finally backed down and sat there sulking with his arms crossed in front of his chest while his cohorts gave each other a high-five. They got back to the treehouse and the boys worked together to move the soda to a corner of the kitchen while Shock fed some popcorn into their machine in the living room and turned it on. She was just about to head back to the kitchen to start fixing up some lunch when she saw the telltale cockroach in the mouth of Oogie's shrine and her anxiety ratcheted up threefold - this really was the worst possible time for Oogie to want to see them, but there was nothing they could do to avoid it – the roach had already seen her so they couldn't just pretend that they weren't home. She hurried into the kitchen where Lock was cracking open one of the soda barrels while Barrel stood by holding a chipped cup, and both of their heads snapped towards her when she said, "Oogie wants to see us."

Lock grimaced, Barrel's round eyes got even rounder and Shock winced uncomfortably at them both, all three of them sharing the same thought: they were running critically short on time and Jack's reprimand was fresh in their minds, but ignoring the Boogie Man's summons wasn't an option and they could only hope that he wouldn't keep them for too long. They hurried into the cage and down to his lair below, pushed through the doors with their heads bowed and knelt on the floor before him.

"Well now! Ol' Oogie's mighty impressed with all those new bugs and birds you sent down a few days back." he said, and he sounded very pleased so the children stood and grinned up at him. "Sure were ugly things, but they tasted just fine and that's what counts! In fact, you did such a good job that I got you a little something for being the best little henchmen in Halloween Town." He reached behind his chair with one huge, burlap hand and pulled out a big bucket full of candied apples, and their three little faces lit up because these were a special treat that they didn't get very often.

"Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" they said together and Lock stepped forward to accept the bucket, then his cohorts crowded around him to see how many apples they'd been given when he stepped back into place beside them.

"Can we have one now?" Barrel asked eagerly, and Oogie chuckled.

"You're more stomach than brains, ain't ya', little man?" he teased, which wasn't exactly a compliment but at least his voice was friendly so Barrel let it slide - and what could he do about being insulted by his master anyway? Oogie leaned back in his chair and continued, "Sure kiddos, go ahead and have an apple. And while you're snackin' you can tell ol' Oogie all about that Christmas Town Jack's so crazy about."

These were somewhat contradictory instructions since it wasn't easy eating a candied apple and talking at the same time, so the children were going to have to take turns. They each selected an apple and set the bucket aside, then told Oogie all of their observations about Christmas Town as quickly as they could while also eating their treats as quickly as they could. When they had told him everything they could remember he leaned forward a bit and asked, "Tell me, any birds or bugs or other tasty things there?"

"No, just cookies and stuff like that." answered Barrel, but then Lock remembered the black and white waddling birds.

"Nuh-uh, stupid, there's birds there! They're bigger than the Easter ones we sent you, and they look easy to catch, too!" Lock volunteered, hoping to gain some good favor by sharing this information. He had very much _not_ forgotten how badly Oogie had hurt him only a few weeks prior and he was eager for any way to make sure he was firmly back on the Boogie Man's good side. Shock couldn't help but grimace a bit, feeling extremely unhappy about having to take time away from their mission to catch some birds - and unfortunately for her, Oogie noticed and frowned.

"What's your problem, princess? Not in the mood to bring poor ol' Oogie his due?" His voice was extremely dangerous: not yet angry but edging into threatening and they all three knew that things could rapidly escalate into violence if they weren't careful.

"It's not that, Mr. Oogie Boogie." Shock said cautiously, bowing her head and looking at the floor. "We love to bring you things! It's just that… we have to catch Sandy Claws right away or else we'll be in big trouble with Jack." Lock and Barrel bowed their heads as well, though Lock glanced at Shock out of the corner of his eye for the briefest of seconds. While he was glad she had said it because it was true, he was also afraid that this information would not go over well… and sure enough, Oogie frowned even more and suddenly snatched the front of Shock's dress and pulled her roughly towards him, nearly knocking off her hat. He lifted her up so that the toes of her boots dragged across the floor and then he brought her even higher so he could look her right in the eye and all three children flinched.

"And that's more important than bringin' the Boogie Man what you owe? You don't wanna pay up after I just gave you these?" He pointed his other hand at the bucket of candied apples. "What kinda henchmen are ya' if you can't handle catching a few birds along with this Sandy joker? What's that ol' bone man gonna do to you that's worse than what _I'm_ gonna do?" He brought Shock only inches away from his enormous, sneering mouth and she tried not to look at the insects wriggling along the corners of his lips. He was so gigantic that he could have swallowed the little witch whole, and the children's greatest fear was that one day he just might do it to any or all of them.

"Please, I'm sorry, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" Shock pleaded, desperately hoping that he wouldn't hurt her so badly that she couldn't go to Christmas Town - for she had very little confidence in her cohorts to finish the mission without her help.

"We can do both!" insisted Lock.

"We'll bring you a Christmas bird!" added Barrel.

"And then we can bring you Sandy Claws, too!" finished Shock. She could feel a seam beginning to tear at the arm of her dress and hoped that Oogie would put her down before it ripped off completely. Fortunately he seemed to calm down a bit and placed her gently back on the floor beside her cohorts.

"You just see that you do. Now run along and get your duties done, and later on we'll have a game or two and maybe I'll make you some snake-and-spider stew, hmm? Poor Oogie gets bored down here with his three little buddies always off running errands for dusty ol' Jack. What do you say to that?" He smiled down at him, and if the children hadn't been accustomed to his rapid swings in mood by now they would have been quite confused.

"Yes sir, Mr. Oogie Boogie! Thank you!" they all three chirped together, and Lock picked up the bucket of candied apples and they bowed out of the lair and back up to their treehouse above.

Lock was slightly tempted to make a snide remark to Shock about angering the Boogie Man and endangering their mission but he didn't quite have the heart for it, especially since she'd been brave enough to speak up about the fact that they didn't have much time left to complete their mission for Jack. Plus she looked shaken-up enough already and he was mostly just grateful that Oogie hadn't hurt her this time so he kept his mouth shut. Barrel was also grateful that Shock hadn't been hurt, and also that Oogie hadn't taken away their treats. They ate a quick lunch without saying much, chugged their anti-allergy potion doses and each grabbed a bag of fresh, hot popcorn to go, then hopped into the tub and hurried back out the door. Barrel turned the _'on'_ handle all the way up so that the tub would trot as fast as possible, and even though it was a rough ride they reached the holiday doors a tiny bit faster than usual and didn't hesitate at all in flinging open the Christmas door and jumping through.

Unfortunately the sun was setting by the time they arrived and an argument ensued over what should take priority: catching Oogie's offering or catching Sandy Claws. Appeasing their master and appeasing their king were both critically important tasks with potentially similar rewards and punishments, and the stress of accomplishing both jobs within such a short timeframe weighed heavily in their three little guts. Eventually they agreed to catch whichever they came across first, and they hid the tub and tromped down the snowy hill towards town in the general direction of where they had seen the black and white birds before. They passed by the snow fort that they had played with during their previous visit but they weren't even tempted to throw any snowballs this time, then they crested another little hill and happily saw a little cluster of the black and white birds around an enormous Christmas tree. The children watched carefully, analyzing the best way to capture one — the birds seemed to be playing some sort of game, sliding on their bellies from the top of a little hill and onto the flat ground surrounding the tree. The flat ground looked different: it was still white, but it was shinier and harder-looking than the snow and the birds slid a great distance across it at a very high speed and Lock very much suspected that it was at least as slippery as the slime-covered stones in their own world could get after it rained. "What do you think?" he whispered to his elder cohort.

"Hmm…" Shock hummed, scratching her chin and thinking hard. Setting a trap and waiting for a bird to walk into it would take too much time, plus they didn't have anything for bait – and they didn't know what might entice these creatures into a trap anyway. She could try to lasso one, but her rope wasn't long enough to reach so they'd have to get much closer in order for her to even try, and if she missed the birds would most certainly run – or maybe even fly – away just like the woolly beasts in Easter Town. She wondered if perhaps Lock could slide down the hill on his stomach like the birds and catch one… if her understanding of physics was correct then surely his heavier weight would carry him faster and farther across the slippery ground than the birds and he should be able to catch up with them… then her calculations were interrupted by her littlest cohort:

"Can we just walk up and grab one? They didn't seem scared of us before."

Both Shock and Lock were about to chastise Barrel for his idiotic idea… but then they realized that it actually wasn't all that idiotic because it was true that the birds had seen them earlier and hadn't run away, but rather only watched them curiously. Perhaps Barrel was onto something? "Okay, here's the plan." Lock decided, "Let's get the net out of the tub, then we'll walk down there and try to seem nice. Then maybe one of those dumb birds will get close enough that we can catch it in the net. Then we'll take it back to Oogie Boogie and hopefully he'll be happy and leave us alone so we can come back and get Sandy Claws!"

"It's going to be too dark to come back by the time we get one to Oogie…" Shock fretted, but what else could they do? They had to catch both Sandy and a Christmas bird and since the birds were right in front of them it was only logical to go for that first - she just hated that she couldn't magically do both at the same time.

"What difference does it make? We gotta get one of these things unless you want Oogie to beat us all up. Then we won't be able to get Sandy at all!" said Lock, stating the obvious and Shock sighed and nodded unhappily. They sent Barrel back to the tub for the net and as he walked along through the snow and out of sight through the trees she could only hope that catching one of these birds would go without a hitch.

When Barrel returned he handed Lock the net and all three children took off their masks and walked down the hill towards those black and white birds, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. The birds paused their game to look curiously at the trick-or-treaters once more, and the trio were deeply relieved when none of them fled – on the contrary, a few of them waddled a bit closer to get a better look at their visitors. Lock cautiously stepped forward to place one foot on the ice, and it was even more slippery than he'd suspected it would be. However, he also thought it was a pretty good bet that Barrel hadn't noticed how slick the ground looked and he couldn't help but take the opportunity to play a trick on his littlest friend.

"Hey Barrel, you're the best at walking on the snow, so why don't you go make friends with them first?" he said, working hard to keep from snickering. Shock raised one eyebrow suspiciously at him, but Barrel was oblivious to his middle cohort's wicked intentions and only noticed the compliment. The little ghoul strode forward, brimming with confidence and excited to take the lead, but the second he stepped on the ice his foot slipped out from under him and he landed right on his rear end with a yelp and an _'oof!'_ Lock and Shock stifled their giggles and even though Shock was a little bit annoyed with Lock for wasting time and risking frightening their prey, it was still a pretty funny trick. Barrel glared at his cohorts as he very, _very_ carefully got to his feet and edged back towards the snow again, and it was an intense struggle for him not to fall once more on the treacherously slick ice. Fortunately the Christmas birds weren't scared by the sudden movement and noise of Barrel's fall – they only cocked their heads a bit inquisitively and continued to waddle towards the trio.

"Hi there, little buddies!" said Lock his most affable voice while hiding the net behind his back as best he could.

"Aren't you just the cutest little things?" Shock lied in her sweetest voice, bending down a bit to greet a bird that was waddling towards her.

"Do you want to be friends?" asked Barrel, and he was only half-lying. He actually thought the birds were kind of funny-looking and the way they slid down the hill on their tummies was rather hilarious. Plus they weren't quite as ugly as the creatures in Easter Town since they were mostly black and their sharp beaks and strange wings were kind of interesting.

"It looks like you all enjoy playing games, hmm?" Shock said sweetly as one of the bravest birds came to a stop right in front of her, and she glanced at her devilish cohort out of the corner of her eye.

"Why don't you let us teach you a new one?" Lock said smoothly, picking up on Shock's signal and inching a bit closer towards her and their prey. The Christmas bird made a sort of squawking noise that might have been a greeting but which transformed into a squawk of terror as Lock brought the net down over it as quick as lightening. All three children thanked their lucky stars that Lock had successfully bagged the bird on his first try because the rest of them all squawked in alarm and immediately began waddling away as fast as they could and then one-by-one disappeared into a hole in the ice with a splash. There was no way the trick-or-treaters could follow into the freezing water so they would have really been in trouble had Lock missed. He tried to heave the struggling bird over his shoulder but it was flapping quite violently with it's hard, flipper-like wings so he gave up and just dragged it along through the snow behind him instead while they made their way back to the tub. Even though they were soon back in the middle of the forest they kept an eye out just in case there was a slim chance they happened to run into Sandy Claws… but as expected, they didn't see another creature on the way to the ring of holiday trees. They flung open the Jack-o-Lantern door and stepped inside, and Lock clutched the net tightly closed to keep their offering from escaping during the long, spiraling fall into darkness.

It was very dark and rather late by the time they made it home to their treehouse, and the journey felt even longer than usual for Shock and Barrel because Lock wouldn't quit bragging about being the one to catch their latest offering. It was a relief to them all when they threw the squawking Christmas bird down the chute to their master – now that they'd fulfilled their obligation to him surely he would let them get on with their other task, for while the Boogie Man had no qualms about ordering the three of them around they were fairly certain that not even Oogie would stand completely in the way of Jack getting what he wanted. While Oogie Boogie frequently disparaged Jack to the trick-or-treaters behind his back, they had never seen him openly defy the Pumpkin King.

After dinner they sat in the living room and tried to find a way to fill the time before bed. Shock had changed into her pajamas already so she could mend the loosened seam in her dress sleeve from when Oogie Boogie had lifted her off the ground earlier that day, and even though she tried to focus all of her attention on her sewing she couldn't stop her brain from going a mile a minute trying to figure out the best strategy for capturing Sandy Claws. Lock flung his throwing knives at the target in the wall and even though he hit the center almost perfectly on every throw this time, it still didn't erase the unease in the back of his mind about what would happen if they failed the next day. Barrel sat on the floor eating a chocolate bar and staring at one of the rat hats he had stolen weeks ago that was now collecting dust in the corner of the living room. He felt just the tiniest bit sad about having to throw that black and white Christmas bird down to Oogie Boogie, just like he did about pretty much every animal they sent down the chute. It was funny to mess with animals sometimes (shaving dogs and cats in the Human World on Halloween was particularly entertaining) and he didn't mind killing them for food, but the idea of being eaten alive was just too scary and he felt a little bad for every creature that met it's no-doubt terrifying end in the maw of the Boogie Man – especially creatures as friendly as that little black and white bird had been. These melancholy thoughts were interrupted by Shock putting aside her sewing and saying firmly:

"Alright, time to go to sleep, we have to get up super early tomorrow. If we don't get Sandy Claws we're dead meat, just like that Christmas bird." Neither she nor Lock were quite as sentimental as Barrel, but they still didn't enjoy sending creatures down to be eaten alive, either.

Lock rolled his eyes. "Stop worrying. I told you earlier, we're gonna get him this time – I just know it!" He was actually extremely worried as well, but he'd rather throw himself down the chute after that unfortunate bird than ever admit to it.

"You said that this morning and look what happened! A big, fat nothing, that's what!" Shock snapped at him. Inside she desperately wanted to believe him and wished she felt as confident as he seemed to feel, but at the same time she was angry with him for being so sure of their success when by her calculation they were in very great danger of continuing to fail.

Lock gave her a sour look and hurled his last knife at the wall with all of his might before getting up from the sofa and heading towards his bedroom. "I told you – we're going to get him! You two just need to try harder!" he shouted from the hall, misdirecting his frustration onto his two cohorts, for deep down he really knew that all three of them were equally to blame… and even worse, he actually felt the most responsible for their failure. What kind of leader was he? On that depressing thought he flopped down onto his ratty old mattress and forced himself into a restless sleep.

Barrel looked up anxiously at his eldest cohort after Lock left the room, and when Shock met his round, worried eyes she rallied her courage and tried to steal some of Lock's confidence: "Don't worry." she said, "Even though Lock's an idiot, he's right about one thing: we're gonna get that fat old man and everything will be fine." Barrel nodded and followed her down the hallway to their own bedrooms, and eventually they joined their middle cohort in restless sleep.

 **Author Note: Sorry this one took awhile, friends! I've been busy, busy busy with my new house! It's so fun, but also exhausting, lol... This chapter was honestly a bit of a struggle to write, perhaps because it's rather a downer and I feel bad for the kids (and the penguin!). But as we all know, it'll all turn out alright in the end! :D I hope you enjoyed it anyway, and hopefully I'll be back a little bit sooner with the next installment.**


	18. Chapter 18

Shock woke up before dawn the next day for three reasons: the first was because it was their last day to catch Sandy Claws and success was absolutely crucial because she didn't want Jack to beat her and her friends or run them out of town. The second was that she was still sore about Lock accusing her and Barrel of being bad trick-or-treaters the day before – not to mention him knocking out her tooth and just generally being annoying – and if she got up early enough she could pull a prank on him without wasting too much of the day. And thirdly, few things energized and motivated them like a good trick and she thought that while Lock would most certainly be irritated at being the brunt of the joke, hopefully it would end up being a morale-booster for all three of them.

She crept into Barrel's bedroom and put her hand over his mouth as she shook the little ghoul awake. "What?" he mumbled against her palm, and she moved her hand away from his mouth with a _'shhhh…'._ Lock was a relatively light sleeper and they had to keep as quiet as possible.

"Help me prank Lock. We'll remind him how good we are at playing tricks!" she whispered, and Barrel grinned widely and nodded. He definitely wasn't opposed to pranking Lock after the little devil had tricked him into stepping on the ice. He followed her out his bedroom door and into the kitchen, wondering what she had in mind… Lock's pranks were almost always bombastic, loud, and definitely startling and annoying (and usually destructive), but Shock's were often a bit more complex. He was surprised to see the inner tube from her bed on the floor next to the soda barrels but before he could ask she whispered, "Help me roll one of these onto the inner tube so we can shake it up really good without making any noise!" Barrel felt slightly unhappy about this - he wanted to prank Lock, but he wasn't sure he wanted to sacrifice one of their barrels of soda to do it… but the look Shock was currently giving him clearly meant there was no room for negotiation so he did as she said. At least they'd still have one barrel left. Once it was nestled in the inner tube they bounced it roughly for several minutes until it was doubtlessly under severe pressure, then together they dragged the entire inner tube and the barrel within it silently down the hall in front of Lock's bedroom door. Then they went back and retrieved Lock's chair from the kitchen, placed a towel on the seat to muffle the noise and worked together to quietly heave the soda barrel onto the chair with the spigot facing the door. At this point Barrel was pretty sure he knew what the general idea of this prank was, but he wasn't sure exactly how it was all going to come together... then Shock got a long piece of strong twine and tied it between the spigot handle and the doorknob and it all made sense. Barrel stuffed his fingers in his mouth to keep from giggling as he imagined how furious Lock would be when he opened his bedroom door in the morning and got sprayed with soda, and Shock gave him a wicked smile. Then they crept back to their own rooms, Shock dragging her inner tube silently behind her, and they both kept their bedroom doors cracked slightly open so they would be sure not to miss their middle cohort's angry shouts, whenever they happened.

The orange sun began to rise, bringing with it a pale, anemic light that streamed through the broken and boarded-up treehouse windows. Lock yawned and stretched and rolled out of bed, then headed for his door to go get some breakfast. Despite how anxious he'd been the night before and despite the knowledge that today was their last day to complete their top-secret, top-priority mission or else suffer severe punishment and humiliation, he was actually feeling pretty good. He'd had dreams of triumphant success all night long and now he was feeling reinvigorated and ready to take on the world – or at least to take on Sandy Claws (and his army of elves, if necessary). Brimming with confidence and determination, he yanked open his bedroom door and was immediately blasted right in the face with a massive amount of lukewarm soda. He jumped and spluttered and swore in surprise, then stood there dripping for only a second before making his decision on which one of his cohorts to pummel first. Only Shock could have come up with a trick like this, because there was no way that Barrel would have wasted the soda in this manner and Lock doubted that Barrel could have managed to set this up by himself without Lock hearing something. "SHOCK!" he hollered, balling his fists and swishing his tail, and then he got even madder when he heard both of his cohorts cackling at his expense. "I'M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT SO HARD!" Lock yelled even louder, then shoved his way past the chair and dripping soda barrel to kick open her bedroom door.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Shock said mockingly, holding her broom like a baseball bat and preparing to swing in case he tried to attack her. "My, don't your horns look nice today! Did you do something different to them?" she said evilly, and Lock reached up to feel his hair laying flat and soggy instead of curling up into it's usual distinctive horn-like shapes.

"You're dead, you rotten witch!" he hissed and moved threateningly towards her, analyzing the best way to attack without getting smacked with the broom but she shook her head and smiled.

"Ah ah ah, you can't kill me yet. We still have to get Sandy Claws or else Jack will kill _all_ of us, remember?" she teased, and Lock bared his teeth angrily but refrained from murdering her because she was right.

"Well as soon as we do, you'd better watch your back!" he snarled.

"Don't be such a baby, it's only a little soda! Just go take a bath – you stink anyway. And besides…" she glanced at Barrel, who had just poked his snickering face into her room to watch the show, "… I was just playing a joke on the third best trick-or-treater I know!"

"Oh really, and who're the first two best?" Lock said sarcastically.

"Who do you think, dummy?" Shock smirked, but before Lock could retort Barrel piped up:

"Me and Shock!"

"Oh yeah, pipsqueak? You think so?" Lock sneered, now advancing on his younger cohort, but despite himself he was feeling less and less angry. It had been a pretty good trick, after all, and as soon as they were done catching Sandy Claws he was very much looking forward to thinking up some way to get back at his friends.

"Yup!" Barrel giggled even as he backed away from the doorway, then he squealed with laughter when Lock tackled him. It was a good-natured fight, the kind of wrestling match that was silly and fun and energized them all, and despite her best efforts Shock couldn't help but join in. She dropped her broom and leapt onto both of her cohorts, but recoiled when her hand stuck to Lock's cheek.

"Ew, you're all sticky!" she said, wrinkling up her nose in disgust.

"Whose fault is that, bat-brain?" Lock grinned, then tried to rub his soda-soaked hair against her face while she shrieked and slapped him away.

"Knock it off, we gotta get to work!" she laughed, giving both boys one last shove before rolling away from them. "Go get washed off, stinky, and hurry up!"

"What are _you_ gonna do, ugly?" Lock taunted. He had Barrel in a headlock and was giving him a rather violent noogie.

"I'm gonna get breakfast cooked and Barrel's going to send the traps down to Oogie and get the tub packed up. Now get going!" She picked up her broom again, gave both boys a swat with it, and then headed for the kitchen.

All of their moods were greatly improved by this rousing start to the day, and once Lock had bathed – and fixed his hair – and everyone had eaten, taken their potion and gotten dressed they met by the tub and Shock held out her fist. "We can do this. We're the best team in all of Halloween Town." she said, and both of her cohorts nodded and bumped her fist with their own.

"Three of a kind." added Barrel.

"Birds of a feather." finished Lock, and with renewed vigor they put on their masks and hopped into the tub and headed out to Christmas Town once more.

Nothing much seemed to have changed since their visit the other day, except this time the little colony of black and white birds all fled under the ice as soon as they saw them. If the Boogie Man expected more of those birds to snack on in the future, the children were going to have to get a bit more creative about catching them. The trio made their way down to the main town once more and searched around for the third biggest building, and once they thought they had located it they snuck over and peeked inside. It was actually a barn containing Sandy's eight reindeer, except these ones had flesh and fur and were thoroughly boring-looking compared to their own reindeer back home. Each reindeer had their own stall with their names on the stall gates in that same cutesy red and white writing that they'd noticed on most of the signs in town, and there was a small team of elves working on each reindeer: polishing and trimming their hooves, brushing their fur, rubbing down their antlers, polishing their leather harnesses and shining the golden jingle bells on those same harnesses. There were several stacks of clean straw and hay placed along the sides of the aisle and at the end of the barn was a neatly swept-up pile of what appeared to be reindeer poop and straw that a small team of elves were adding to with pitchforks and a wheelbarrow from a stall they were cleaning.

"I thought they were supposed to be _tiny_ reindeer?" whispered Barrel. It seemed that all the Christmas books he'd read had been lying or exaggerating, because these reindeer certainly weren't tiny.

"Let's get out of here, this isn't a house." whispered Lock, but Shock shook her head and said:

"Hang on, let's watch for a bit. The reindeer are super important so maybe Sandy Claws will come check on them." Lock thought that seemed highly unlikely, but he wasn't about to start a fight when there were so many elves around. So they watched and waited for quite awhile, and just when Shock was about to concede that this was turning into a waste of time the loud, melodious bells that they'd heard before rang out and the reindeer-tending elves put down their brushes and pitchforks and headed through large double-doors at the front of the barn and off to what the trick-or-treaters presumed was lunch.

"Here's your chance to ride a reindeer." Shock snickered while elbowing Lock in the ribs.

"Yeah, but these aren't the _cool_ kind of reindeer!" he scoffed, but despite this there was no way he could pass up such an opportunity now that she had put the idea into his head. A small, wicked smirk spread across Shock's face because she knew he wouldn't be able to refuse trying and she had suggested it for two reasons: the first was that hopefully Sandy Claws would come if they set loose some of his reindeer, but the second was that she was hoping that Lock would fall off of it and - if she was really lucky - land in the pile of reindeer poop.

"What, are you scared or something?" Shock said slyly, but Lock scoffed again.

"No, I'm not a big baby like you are."

"I'd be scared to ride one, and I'm not a baby." said Barrel. He wasn't about to risk getting so close to such large beasts again, and he thought that it would be extremely foolish for Lock to actually try to get on one… But at the same time, he was hoping Lock would try because it would probably be pretty entertaining to watch.

"What are you talking about, you're the biggest baby of all time!" Shock said meanly and Lock snort-laughed, then took off his mask and shoved it into Barrel's hands and said:

"Watch and learn, babies." and after checking carefully to make sure that all of the elves were really gone he strode boldly down the center aisle of the barn to inspect all of the reindeer and choose one to ride. His cohorts stayed near a big pile of clean straw and watched, preparing to hide if necessary. All of the reindeer pretty much looked the same to Lock, so he tried to read the names on their stalls and pick the one with the coolest name. _'Dancer'_ and _'Prancer'_ were definitely out, and he didn't know what _'Vixen'_ was supposed to mean. None of the other names were much better, but eventually he decided that _'Dasher'_ was the least-stupid so he started climbing up that gate. "Come unlock the gate!" he called to his cohorts once he was straddling the wall of the stall, and Shock decided to do it since she hadn't gotten to get close to the skeletal reindeer yet and these furry ones were the next best thing – plus she wanted a front row seat if Lock fell off and got trampled. Fortunately the gate latch was quite low to the ground, no doubt so the short little elves could reach, and she had no trouble reaching it as well. By now Lock was getting slowly to his feet to balance on the thin wooden side of the stall and Dasher was looking at him a bit nervously, snorting softly with it's ears pricked up towards the trespasser. These reindeer seemed to be a little bit more high-strung than the Halloween Town reindeer, but Lock was undeterred. "Okay, on the count of three I'm gonna jump on it's back and you open up the gate at the same time, got it?"

"Got it!" answered Shock, unlocking the latch and preparing to pull it open while staying out of the way. Lock was now crouching on all fours on the side of the stall, using his tail for balance and calculating the distance he would need to jump in order to land on Dasher's back.

"One…" he murmured, "Two…" he wiggled his rear end a bit and twitched his tail like a cat preparing to pounce, "THREE!" he finally shouted, then launched himself towards the hapless reindeer and reached out to grab it's harness just as Shock pulled open the gate. Poor Dasher bellowed in alarm and dashed right out of the stall as quick as his namesake, and Lock just barely managed to hang on as the reindeer tried to buck him off of his back. Shock and Barrel were both highly amused and they couldn't help but laugh in delight, but they were also rather impressed that he hadn't been thrown off yet. Lock himself was having the time of his life – the reindeer smelled earthy and strange but he hardly noticed because riding the panicking animal was thrilling and not nearly as difficult as he had been anticipating… but then they reached the end of the barn and all three trick-or-treaters realized that they hadn't opened the main doors so that Dasher could actually run out and hopefully bring Sandy Claws running. The reindeer skidded to a halt and wheeled around, it's shiny hooves scrambling for purchase on the floor, and the sudden stop and reversal dislodged the little devil and Lock was swung around so that he was dangling from the harness right in front of Dasher's neck and brisket by only his hands.

"CRAP!" he muffled into the beast's furry chest, and his cohorts laughed even harder as Dasher sprinted towards the opposite end of the barn – and the pile of manure. Lock tried to bring his legs up to wrap around Dasher's neck and hang on, but it was extremely difficult with the reindeer's front legs moving quickly on either side of him and he knew that if he didn't manage it soon he was going to lose his grip and quite possibly get trampled. He turned his face away from the fur and shouted, "Open the stupid door!" and Shock ran along the sides of the aisle towards the big double barn doors.

"Jump off before you get outside or someone will see you!" she said, preparing to slide open one of the doors and she just hoped that Lock could figure out some way to get off of the beast without being trampled so badly that he couldn't complete their mission – though it would be funny if he got stomped just a little bit. By the time they approached the door again Lock had somehow gotten himself wrapped around the side of Dasher's neck with all four limbs and was clinging on tightly, and just as Shock opened the door he sprang away as hard as he could, aiming to land in a pile of clean straw at the side of the aisle – and miraculously, he made it. It was just in time, too, as Dasher bounded out of the barn and actually took flight, and all three children watched in amazement as the reindeer went soaring into the air.

"That was so cool!" Barrel squealed, rushing over to his brave middle cohort and Lock scrambled out of the straw with a wide grin, feeling extremely proud of himself.

"Super cool!" Shock agreed. She usually tried to avoid giving Lock too many compliments, but it really had been an incredibly awesome stunt. "Now let's hide again and wait for Sandy Claws!" she said, and they all three hurried back to their hiding place with Lock picking the straw out of his clothes and hair. But alas, when Dasher returned to the barn it was only accompanied by three elves who led it back to it's stall, double-checked the gate latch, and then headed back out of the stable.

"Dang it." Shock muttered. Apparently Sandy Claws didn't think his reindeer were all that important after all. Barrel sighed heavily and Lock grunted in annoyance… but even though his effort hadn't had the desired effect he was still glad that he'd gotten to ride that reindeer.

"All right, let's get out of here and check the next biggest building." Lock grumbled, for he didn't think it would be smart to press his luck and try letting loose any more reindeer. They left the barn just as the lunch bells rang out again and just barely managed to get themselves out of sight behind the toy factory when they saw him: the ever elusive Sandy Claws. Once again they couldn't get close to him because of all the elves, but at least they could see which direction he was headed and they followed from a distance, moving quietly and utilizing all of their stealth skills to stay hidden. He led them across town to what seemed to be the fourth-largest building they'd come across yet, and Sandy and a fleet of elves walked inside of it. As the trick-or-treaters crouched behind the low stone wall surrounding the building, Lock noticed a mailbox – clearly this was actually a residence instead of a factory or stable.

"Look!" he hissed, elbowing Shock in the arm. "What does that say?"

Shock squinted at the mailbox, then her eyes widened when she recognized the name from all of their reading: "S. Claus! Sandy Claws! We found his house!" she whispered with her teeth chattering a bit from the cold, and all three children were flooded with excitement and relief. They _finally_ knew where their target surely spent most of his time and now they could stake out his house and if he happened to leave, they would see it. "Did you see how many elves went in there?" she whispered to her cohorts.

"No." said Lock.

"Yeah, I counted ten." said Barrel, and Shock thought that sounded about right.

"Okay," she said, "We have until this evening to get him back to Jack. Let's wait and see if the elves come out before then. If they do, then we can knock on the door and bag him when he answers."

"And if the elves don't leave then we'll have to bash them in the head!" Lock said wickedly, and he secretly hoped that would be the case. They had their club back in the hidden bathtub and he wouldn't mind putting it to good use.

"Exactly." agreed Shock, and while she was mostly hoping that catching Sandy would go quickly and smoothly, she wouldn't have minded knocking a few elves, either. And then they waited, bunching closely together for warmth and going over their plans repeatedly in an effort to stave off boredom.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) no head-bashing was required as one by one the elves began trickling out of the house over the next few hours. Once the tenth elf had disappeared down the path everything was quiet save for the soft sound of Christmas carols in the air and the trick-or-treaters felt that their time had come. They couldn't know for certain that Sandy was alone in the house, but this was probably the best opportunity they were going to get and if they waited much longer it would start to get dark. "Okay, here's the plan." Lock whispered to his cohorts, his entire body taut with anticipation and Shock and Barrel listened closely, equally excited. "Barrel, you go get the tub so we can carry him home. Me and Shock will make sure he doesn't leave. Then we'll all knock on the door and bag him in the when he answers, just like Shock said. Got it?"

Barrel nodded, and while he wasn't thrilled to be sent off by himself yet again, he remembered what Shock had said about him being the tub's favorite so he felt a little bit proud to be tasked with this important duty now. While Shock and Lock waited for his return they kept an eye out for any more elves, but no one came around and it seemed like they at last had a clear opening to capture their prey. When Barrel arrived he walked the tub right up the little cobblestone path to the front door before hopping out, then they each took a corner of their big, black, pumpkin-patterned bag and stood on the front stoop. They looked up and saw what appeared to be the doorbell button, and like the latches and handles in the reindeer barn it was at elf-height so the children could reach it. Shock nodded to her cohorts, who nodded back, then she pushed the doorbell. It chimed out the first five notes of one of those dumb Christmas songs, and they glanced at each other once more as they waited for someone to answer, desperately hoping that someone would be Sandy Claws. After a moment the door suddenly opened and they looked up right into the face of the king of Christmas Town himself, tall and fat and looking quite bewildered as he stared down at them.

"Trick-or-treat!" they cried out together without even thinking about it, for saying their signature phrase was reflexive to the point of being nearly involuntary whenever they knocked on a stranger's door, and before Sandy could say anything more than a confused _'huh?'_ they all three leapt forward with a shout and brought their sack down over his head while simultaneously knocking him to the ground.

"Who are you? What are you doing!?" came Sandy's muffled voice from inside the bag as Shock quickly tied it shut, and while he struggled and tried to escape he wasn't flailing quite as wildly as Not-Sandy-Claws had.

"You're coming with us, you fat old man!" Shock cackled, and her cohorts laughed wickedly as they started dragging the sack towards their tub. He was incredibly big and extremely heavy, much larger and heavier than Not-Sandy-Claws, but fortunately not nearly as large as Oogie Boogie.

"Now hold on! Where are you taking me!?" Sandy protested.

"Back… to… Jack!" Lock grunted as they began trying to heave the sack into the tub. It took a tremendous amount of effort, but eventually they managed to push Sandy over the lip of the tub and he landed inside with an _'oof!'_ and a heavy thud.

"Who is Jack?" he asked, struggling harder inside of the bag.

"You'll find out!" the children all said together, then scrambled onto the sack and started the tub quickly towards the holiday trees. There wasn't much room thanks to Sandy's enormous bulk, but it was a long trip back home and after all the work it took to get him into the tub they needed a rest. They ignored their captive's muffled protests and chattered and laughed together about their success as they once again speculated on what rewards they might expect once they presented their trophy to their king.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?!" Sandy asked once more as they reached the Jack-o-Lantern door, but the children ignored his questions.

"You'd better hang on, Sandy!" said Lock as he threw open the door and hopped back into the tub.

"You're in for a ride!" added Shock.

"You don't want to fall out and get squished!" giggled Barrel.  
"What!?" cried Sandy, sounding incredibly alarmed but the children only laughed in triumph as they stepped through the door and began the spiral down into darkness. They had succeeded! They had completed their top-secret, top-priority mission at last! They were happy, Jack would be happy, Oogie would be happy, no beatings or banishing were in store for them, their reputation as the best little tricksters was preserved and everything was perfect.


	19. Chapter 19

The town square was bustling with activity when they arrived and it looked like everyone in Halloween Town was there. Dr. Finkelstein's creepy skeletal reindeer were all harnessed to a large sleigh and standing on the wooden take-off ramp and nearly everybody was holding some kind of present to add to the back of the sleigh. The crowd parted and gawked with great interest as the trio made their way towards Jack and they walked proudly, loving being the center of everyone's attention and 100% confident that they finally had the right Sandy Claws. Now that the moment had arrived, they all decided that waiting until the last minute had actually turned out perfectly because it was much more dramatic this way, plus it put the three of them right in the spotlight. They were excited to reveal their trophy in front of the whole town and when they were close enough that Jack could hear them they shouted out together:

"Jack, Jack! This time we bagged him!"

"This time we _really_ did!" added Lock, unable to contain a little leap of excitement.

"He sure is big, Jack!" said Barrel from atop the wiggling sack as Jack strode towards them in his Sandy Claws costume.

"And _heavy!_ " finished Shock, then she and Lock each took an end of the rope and pulled open the bag. Sandy Claws thrust his head and arms out of the bag with a great, angry shout and the whole crowd gasped. The trio stood by while Jack spoke with him, puffing out their little chests with pride at being so crucial to this pivotal moment, but they didn't really notice that nobody was paying any attention to them - everyone was too focused on Sandy Claws.

"See that he's comfortable!" Jack eventually said, and Lock and Shock took hold of the ropes again but then he stopped them: "Just a second fellas! Of course! _That's_ what I'm missing!" and he snatched the hat right off of Sandy's head. "Thanks!" he finished, and the children quickly closed the bag, cutting off the protests of their prisoner and trapping him in darkness once more. They trundled back the way they came, through the main gate and away from town and Barrel wanted to double-check what the plan was.

"Where are we taking him?" he asked, still perched on top of the bag.

"Where?" asked Shock. She knew what the answer would be, but she wasn't sure if they should do it right away or wait for a bit to make sure that Jack was actually gone to the Human World. Plus she also wanted to hear Lock say it out loud - that way the blame would fall mostly on him if anyone heard or they got in trouble.

"To Oogie Boogie, of course!" Lock answered cockily, taking off his mask and getting right up in her face. "There isn't anywhere in the world more comfortable than that! And Jack _said_ to make him comfortable, _didn't he_?" He grinned wickedly.

"Yes, he did." Shock and Barrel both answered, starting to feel excited about bringing Oogie their captive. He was always happy when he got to torment someone, and the happier he was, the less likely he was to torment the three of _them_ … and not being tormented by Oogie made the three of them happy so it was a win-win situation all around. Well, a win-win for everyone but Sandy Claws, but who cared about him? He was just some fat old man with a dumb costume and a dumb holiday. He didn't have anything to do with Halloween so it really didn't matter to the trick-or-treaters if Oogie roughed him up a bit.

"Haven't you heard of peace on earth and goodwill towards men?" came Sandy's muffled voice from inside the bag, and the children were highly amused by his futile attempt to appeal to their better natures. It only made them more excited to deliver him to the Boogie Man.

"NO!" they shouted in unison, then cackled wildly as the tub started up again and they continued towards home. They trundled through the back door of their treehouse and Lock grabbed the plunger out of the bathroom and Shock grabbed her broomstick, then they walked the tub all the way up in front of Oogie's shrine, so close that it forced Sandy's head right into the chute.

"Don't do this! Naughty children never get any presents!" Sandy's voice echoed a bit from inside the chute but the children ignored his protests, laughing hysterically as Lock pulled a pitchfork out of the wall and tossed it to Barrel so they could all three shove Sandy Claws down to their master together.

"I think he might be too _big!_ " grunted Shock as she pushed her broom as hard as she could against Sandy Claws's enormous backside.

"No he's not." Lock said with the utmost confidence. "If he can go down a chimney, he can _fit… down… here!_ " He pushed hard against Sandy Claws with the plunger on each of his last three words, then his cohorts joined in and the three of them pushed with all their might and were finally successful. Stuffing Sandy into the chute and hearing him groan as he squeezed uncomfortably down the pipe was really quite hilarious, and it got even funnier when they heard Oogie Boogie start to taunt him. They couldn't hear exactly what was happening, they only knew that it sounded like the Boogie Man was very pleased with his new plaything so surely that meant he would be pleased with them for a good long while… and perhaps they would even get that batch of snake-and-spider stew. They clapped and laughed uncontrollably until their stomachs hurt, then put the tub away and grabbed some snacks to listen to the show: Barrel got some candy and Lock poured himself two cups of soda while Shock got some popcorn out of the machine, then they all sat on the floor next to the chute and strained their ears to hear what the Boogie Man was up to. It was always tempting to go down there and watch while Oogie was tormenting a victim, but it was strictly against the rules and that was one of the very few rules that they would absolutely not break, because if he saw them they might very well end up on the roulette wheel themselves - so they had to settle for audio entertainment only.

They were wondering if he had gotten to the part where he was roughing Sandy up as well as taunting him, but then they heard a different noise: the gears of the cage elevator began to turn and the children turned around where they were sitting and watched anxiously for the trap door to open - who could it possibly be? Then they all looked at one another, sharing the same thought: it couldn't be Jack, could it? Wasn't he off doing Sandy's job? Wasn't that the whole point of them kidnapping that fat old man in the first place? But then the gears stopped turning and they realized that whoever was in the cage had taken it down into the pit instead of up to their treehouse. Who could possibly be that dumb? It had to be someone coming to Sandy's aid and they listened harder, trying to figure out who the interloper was… but then they heard the last voice they had been expecting: Sally the rag doll. They all looked at one another again with wide eyes - sure, Sally had been near the top of their list of future prank targets, but unlike almost everyone else in town she was nice to them and hadn't really done anything to deserve getting smacked around by Oogie Boogie. What on earth was she doing here? She was nice, but apparently she was also either extremely stupid or extremely brave to go down into the Boogie Man's lair alone and after only a few moments they heard her start to cry out for help.

"What should we do?" whispered Barrel. The thought of Oogie tormenting Sally made him feel sick to his stomach and he put down his candy bar.

"What _can_ we do?" said Shock, looking at him helplessly, then she looked at Lock, hoping he'd have an idea. She'd never felt so conflicted about what to do or how to feel and she was at a complete loss.

Lock just looked helplessly back at her, trying to think… how could they possibly get Sally out of trouble without getting into trouble themselves? He liked her alright, but not enough to stick his neck out _too_ far on her behalf. Still, the idea of Oogie beating her up made him more uncomfortable than he thought himself capable of. There was a difference between pushing her down the stairs for fun and the Boogie Man tearing her apart. "Maybe we should go to town and tell someone?" he suggested, not sounding quite as confident as he usually did.

"Who?" asked Shock and Barrel together, and Lock shrugged. He really had no idea. Jack was gone and who else could possibly make Oogie Boogie let Sally go? Plus even if Jack _was_ here then they would get in trouble for admitting they gave Sandy Claws to Oogie. Everything was suddenly a huge mess and hearing Oogie taunting his victims below them wasn't fun anymore.

"Well, we have to try at least." Lock said a bit desperately, and the others nodded. Maybe Jack was back home by now, and maybe if they acted like they were really sorry he wouldn't beat them black and green. They hurried out the back door and ran towards town… but before they even got all the way up the hill they heard the Mayor's tragic voice echoing through the night, amplified by his megaphone:

"Terrible news! The King of Halloween has been blown to smithereens! Skeleton Jack is now a pile of dust. "

The children stopped dead in their tracks and stared at one another. It couldn't possibly be true! Sure, Jack scolded and disciplined them a lot, and it was so annoying when he punished them… but blown to smithereens? Who would be the Pumpkin King now? What would happen to next Halloween? And every Halloween after that? Everything felt crazy and scary and out-of-control, and not in a good way. "At least now we won't get in trouble for giving Sandy Claws to Oogie Boogie…" Lock said nervously, but it was a small comfort.

"Does that mean Oogie is the Pumpkin King now?" asked Barrel, but Shock and Lock only shrugged. They stood there for quite some time, not saying anything to one another and just wondering what to do next. If Jack was really a pile of dust then their best option was to go back to the Boogie Man and try to stay on his good side, like always. There was no point in going to town now, because no one but Jack would be able to take on Oogie. Certainly not that ridiculous Mayor, though it would be pretty funny to see him try and fail. _He_ was someone they wouldn't mind Oogie tormenting. Since it was useless to go to town and they didn't want to go back home and hear Oogie doing something awful to Sally they just stayed where they were, wondering how much blood they were going to have to clean up once the Boogie Man was done with his victims… though they weren't really sure if Sally even _had_ blood since they only remembered seeing leaves come out of her when they'd pushed her down the steps. They didn't know if the Boogie Man would even eat leaves, but it wouldn't have surprised him if he did – even if only out of spite and for another way to torture her.

Just when they were all starting to feel really miserable, the last person they'd expected to see suddenly came bounding over the hill and down the pathway right towards them: it was Jack, looking quite whole and not blown to smithereens at all. Before they could even think of how to react he narrowed in on them and demanded, "Where did you take Sandy Claws?" Jack had an unpleasant suspicion that he knew exactly where the trick-or-treaters had taken the leader of Christmas and he mentally berated himself for trusting them to obey his orders. What had he been thinking? Jack could admit to himself that he'd had several bone-headed ideas in his day, so to speak – but this had really been one of the worst.

For the children's part, Jack didn't sound as angry as they had expected he would - he mostly sounded concerned and determined and very, very serious. "He's at Mr. Oogie Boogie's house." they answered together, cringing a bit. It was scary to admit the truth, but what choice did they have?

"We'll discuss this later." Jack said very sternly, and without another word he took off towards the treehouse quick as a flash on his long, spindly legs. They watched him go and then looked at one another again.

"Now what?" asked Barrel. While he felt relieved that Jack wasn't blown into dust, he was also scared because the future _'discussion'_ couldn't be good. He was positive that a beating was in store for him and his friends, and he almost wished that Jack would have done it right then and there just to get it over with.

"Everyone thinks Jack is dead…" said Shock, thinking through their options.

"So maybe if we go tell everyone he's not, we'll get out of at least a little bit of trouble?" Lock suggested. It was a long-shot, but it was better than nothing so they took off towards the sound of the Mayor's megaphone to inform him of the good news.

It took some time to find him, but the hearse was rolling so slowly through the outskirts of town that they eventually managed it… but they were quite tired and breathless when they finally caught up. They all three ran out into the street in front of him, waving their arms and squinting into the headlights and just hoping that he wouldn't try to run them over. He was crying heavily through the sad side of his face and any other time the trio would have made fun of him for sobbing like a baby, but this particular situation was far too serious - it was their best hope of lessening their inevitable punishment.

"Mayor!" they shouted in unison.

"Stop!" cried Barrel, hopping up and down and hoping the Mayor could see him.

"Jack's alive!" Lock and Shock called together, and the Mayor brought the hearse to a stop and glared at them with his puffy, leaking, red-rimmed eyes.

"Don't you three have any shame _at all_? How can you lie about something like this?! You horrible, _horrible_ children!" His tremulous voice was both angry and devastated, and while his reaction was completely understandable considering how the trick-or-treaters lied to him on a regular basis, it was still frustrating not to be believed this time. This wasn't about some dumb prank – this was the entire fate of their Pumpkin King and Halloween! Didn't that stupid Mayor understand that not even _they_ would lie about something so important?

"We're not lying!" they protested, but the Mayor cranked the steering wheel and began trying to drive around them.

"WAIT!" shouted Lock, and he rallied the last of his energy to leap onto the hood of the hearse and his cohorts did the same.

"We're telling the truth, honest!" insisted Barrel, hanging onto the hood ornament for dear life.

"We wouldn't lie about Jack being alive!" Shock said angrily.

"He really is!" cried Lock.

The Mayor scrutinized them carefully, squinting and sniffling and looking extremely suspicious even through his grief. "How do you know?"

"We saw him!" said Barrel.

"We talked to him!" said Shock.

"When?" the Mayor asked more suspiciously still, but there was just the tiniest hint of hopefulness edging into his tone.

"Just now!" Lock and Barrel said together.

"Where is he?" asked the Mayor, finally bringing the hearse to a complete stop again.

"He's back at our treehouse! He went to see Oogie Boogie." said Shock, relieved that the hearse had stopped moving because she was getting dangerously close to losing her footing on the hubcap.

"Why would he do that? Why wouldn't he come straight back to town?" asked the Mayor as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and Lock was getting seriously impatient with all of these questions.

"Because he went to go get Sandy Claws!" he shouted.

"And Sally!" piped up Barrel.

"Come on, we'll show you! Hurry up, stupid!" Shock hissed, unable to hold back the insult.

The Mayor glared at her, but after a moment finally said stonily, "Alright, let's go. But if you're lying, so help me, it'll be the last lie you ever tell. You'll wish you'd never come into existence…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Lock rolled his eyes as he clambered off of the hood and onto the bench seat beside the Mayor.

"You'll see!" Shock said snottily as she climbed onto the seat next, and Barrel followed her but didn't say anything. He was just hoping against hope that Jack wasn't too late to save Sally, and that maybe Jack and Oogie Boogie had talked it all out and that somehow everything would be okay.

They drove towards the treehouse at a much quicker pace, and when they reached the edge of the pit the children jumped out of the hearse and scurried over to peer down into the darkness below. Their cage elevator was all the way down by one of the windows into Oogie's lair, but it appeared to be quite dark inside and they didn't hear any sound at all – no cries from Sally or Sandy and no evil laughing from Oogie and they looked at one another nervously – silence couldn't be a good thing.

"Well?" called the Mayor from the hearse. He didn't trust them not to try and push him over the edge and into the pit. With Jack gone it wouldn't have surprised him one bit for the trick-or-treaters to attempt a coup by killing off the last remaining authority figure in town and installing Oogie Boogie as the new Pumpkin King. The children ignored him and instead put their heads together for a moment.

"What should we do?" asked Barrel.

"You go ask that stupid Mayor if he has a light so we can shine it in there – it looks like it's too dark to see." said Shock.

"Too dark for _you_ , maybe…" Lock couldn't help but brag, and Shock smacked him in the back of the head and said to him:

"And _you_ go inside and crank up the elevator so we can all ride down, dummy."

"And what about you, are you just gonna sit here and give old baggy-butt a tissue whenever he needs one?" Lock sneered, and Shock reached out to smack him again but he blocked her hand.

"No, _I'm_ gonna get the rope ladder so we can get in there, dirt-brain!"

Lock couldn't really argue with her plan, so he just stuck out his tongue and headed across the rickety bridge and into the treehouse to do as she said. When they all reconvened they convinced the Mayor to squeeze into the cage with them and they descended all the way down into the pit and then over to a short metal ventilation tube that was large enough for all four of them to barely squeeze into. Barrel switched on the Mayor's heavy spotlight with a loud _'click'_ and shone it directly down onto Jack and Sally.

"Jack! _Jack!_ " the Mayor cried out ecstatically as the two of them squinted up into the powerful beam of light.

"Here he is!" said Barrel excitedly.

"Alive!" added Lock, just as excitedly.

"Just like we said!" finished Shock, feeling very satisfied that the Mayor had to admit they hadn't been lying for once.

"Grab ahold, my boy!" the Mayor said as he threw down the rope, and the four of them were just able to pull Jack and Sally up and out of the dark lair. When they both had their feet on the ground again the children noticed three things: first was that the Mayor looked like he practically wanted to hug Jack. Second was that Jack and Sally were holding hands. And third and most importantly, Oogie Boogie was nowhere to be seen or heard. They wanted to ask where he was - and Sandy Claws too, for that matter - but the excitement of being part of the rescue mission was quickly being overtaken by worry. Jack had said they were going to discuss this later, and later was now so they tried to stay quiet and out of the way, hoping against hope that Jack would just forget about it and ignore them. Then the Mayor asked their question for them: "I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you, Jack! And you, too, Sally." he added as an afterthought. "But where is Oogie Boogie?"

"Dead and gone." Jack said firmly, and everyone gasped but Sally. "He tried to kill Sally and Santa Claus, and he would have killed me, too, if I had let him. And I suspect it may not have been the first time he's killed. It was time to put a stop to it. I probably should have done it a long time ago."

"Oh my…" the Mayor said, somewhat aghast, but then he recovered himself and said, "Well, you know best of course, Jack. He certainly was dangerous, and I can't say that I myself will miss him much."

The children gaped at one another, hardly able to believe it, but then Jack honed in on them and said in an extremely angry voice, " _Why_ did you bring Santa Claus to Oogie Boogie when I made it very, _very_ clear that you were NOT to do so?! He nearly murdered and _ate_ him and Sally!" Jack glared down at them looking more furious and terrifying than they had ever, _ever_ seen him look and they all three shrunk away from him, cowering and bunching tightly together in fear. They had directly disobeyed him and gotten caught, and not only that but they had almost gotten Sally and Sandy Claws killed. Surely they were in for it now, but it was worth at least _trying_ to save themselves.

"We didn't really think that Oogie Boogie would eat them!" pleaded Barrel, wringing his hands a bit, but it wasn't really true. The children actually wouldn't have been all that surprised if Oogie had killed them because they knew that blood (other than their own) had to get all over his lair somehow, and sometimes people and creatures larger than the ones they sent down the chute went in and never came back out.

"We just thought he would scare them!" added Shock.

"And maybe smack them around a little," said Lock. "That's all he ever does to us… did to us…" he trailed off, unsure of why he had just admitted that. He supposed that since Oogie was dead and gone it didn't really matter that he'd said it because it wasn't like Oogie could punish them anymore.

Sally's heart broke a little bit at that. Living with Dr. Finkelstein was suffocating but he had never hurt her, not even when she poisoned him. She couldn't imagine the wickedness it would take to raise a hand to a child that way, no matter how naughty they could be. Jack's suspicions had just been confirmed and now he felt extra justified in taking out Oogie Boogie. Not only had he been a sadistic, gambling, attempted-murderer, but he was also a child abuser and there was no place in Jack's town for that. He had given him too many chances as it was and he felt no regret at finally ending the Boogie Man's reign of terror - the bad kind of terror.

"Oogie Boogie told us we had to bring him Sandy Claws!" Barrel whined again, now on the verge of tears. Honestly, they had been trapped between a rock and a tombstone: Jack had told them not to bring Sandy to Oogie, but Oogie had demanded they do so anyway. How were they supposed to win? No matter what they did they would be in trouble - but when it really came down to it, Oogie scared them more and being on his good side was more crucial than being on Jack's good side. But now Jack was the only one left and they couldn't even run to Oogie for whatever protection he might have offered them. Shock held her arm out in front of her youngest cohort to try and protect him in case Jack started hitting, since Barrel was so little and helpless - and Lock did the same for Shock, preparing himself to take the blow because she was so delicate and weak, though he didn't know what he would do if Jack threw them all down into the pit to their own deaths… but their fears turned out to be unnecessary because just then Jack's expression softened and he knelt down as close to them as he could get.

"I understand." he said quietly. "You had no choice." He placed his bony hands gently on Lock and Barrel's shoulders and all three of them flinched but then relaxed a bit as he continued to look at them sympathetically.

"So…" Lock said cautiously.

"You're not mad?" finished Shock.

"Well, it's a very upsetting situation, but no one got hurt and Oogie is really the one to blame. But he can't hurt you or anyone else anymore."

"So…" Shock began.

"You're not going to punish us?" finished Lock, and Barrel sniffled a little.

"No, I'm not going to punish you. But from here on out I expect you to be a little better behaved and follow my orders. Playing tricks is fine, that's your job as trick-or-treaters. But nothing dangerous. Do you understand?" The trio nodded, but crossed their fingers behind their backs where Jack couldn't see… just in case.

"Well, then!" chirped the Mayor. "Jack, we've got to get you back to town! Everyone still thinks you've been blown to smithereens!" He looked like it had taken all of his patience not to interrupt before then.

"Let's go then, everyone!" Jack said cheerfully, then he directed the children and Mayor into the elevator cage first, and then he and Sally followed when they sent the elevator back down. Then Jack picked Barrel up and placed him on the roof of the Mayor's hearse while Lock and Shock scrambled up on their own for the ride back to town. The children looked at one another as the engine started up, unsure of how to process everything that had just happened, but the longer they thought on it, the happier they started to feel. It was weird that Oogie was gone, he was the grown-up who had always paid the most attention to them, after all… but on the other hand, not all of that attention was good. And if Jack hadn't beaten or killed them for what they had just done then it seemed unlikely that he ever would - and that was _definitely_ a good thing. Sure, Oogie couldn't bring them toys or make them his special snake-and-spider stew anymore, but they could keep stealing from town and the Human World like always, so it wasn't _too_ big of a loss. And sure, now they didn't have the pride of being able to call themselves the Boogie Man's little henchmen, but on the other hand that also meant they were now totally free to do whatever they wanted… and maybe Jack would need henchmen? Surely everyone would respect them even more if they worked for the Pumpkin King and not just the Boogie Man. Suddenly the whole world felt full of possibilities and as the hearse rolled into the cheering town the trio couldn't help but wave and cheer right along with everyone else, once again pleased to be so near the center of attention.

The trio sat on top of the Mayor's hearse and watched the town going absolutely crazy about the fact that Jack was still alive and intact. They couldn't help but sneer when Jack picked up the fat little corpse kid and shook hands with the Mayor, and now that nobody was looking in their direction anymore they started looking for a way to vandalize the top of the hearse without anyone noticing. But before Shock could even pull out her knife or Lock his matches, a deep, jolly laugh rang out through the air above and they looked up into the sky along with everyone else to see what it was… and in front of the enormous, full, yellow moon was the unmistakable silhouette of Sandy's sleigh being pulled across the sky by his eight reindeer. Apparently he was wasting no time in getting back to his job after Jack freed him from the Boogie Man's clutches.

"Happy Halloween!" he called out, and magical, glittering white snowflakes began drifting down over the town.

"Merry Christmas!" Jack cried, waving up at the sky with a wide, bony grin. All of the townsfolk except for Jack and the trick-or-treaters were thoroughly perplexed by the strange, cold white stuff falling from the sky, and Lock, Shock and Barrel felt quite superior to everyone else thanks to their relatively vast knowledge of and experience with all things Christmas. The snowflakes fell at such a fast rate that before long there was several inches of sparkling snow over the ground and every surface, and as the townsfolk began inspecting it with wonder and curiosity (and alarm, in some cases) the trio climbed down from the hearse and scampered off through the snow beside the fountain. Then suddenly Lock had a brilliant idea:

"Let's throw a snowball at Jack!" he snickered.

"Do you think we should, so soon after what just happened?" whispered Shock.

"Why not? You heard what he said, tricks are fine, just nothing dangerous." he said carelessly, already starting to pack some snow tightly together with his hands. "There's nothing dangerous about a snowball!"

"That's true…" she reasoned, and Barrel started giggling, remembering how much fun throwing snowballs had been before. They peeked out from behind the low stone wall of the fountain basin and waited until Jack was in range, then Lock flung the snowball as hard as he could right at Jack's skull… and struck him in one bony eye socket. The sight of snow all over the Pumpkin King's face was truly hilarious and they couldn't hold in their laughter even though it gave away their position. Jack caught sight of them but he was grinning, and they laughed even harder as they quickly ducked beneath the basin once more, just in case he decided to throw one back at them. Unfortunately Jack didn't retaliate, he just wandered off after Sally for some reason so they began forming more snowballs and lobbing them at whoever they could hit instead, trying to get a good fight going. Happily the Christmas spirit had seemed to infect everyone, because townspeople who normally tried to ignore or avoid them started playing along and the children couldn't remember the last time they'd had so much fun. It wasn't as good as Halloween, but maybe Christmas wasn't so stupid after all.

 ****Author Note****

 **Thank you so much to everyone who's made it to the end of this story! It's been such fun going on this journey with those of you who have been following along for some time, and I thank you all for your encouragement and support over the last 7.5 months or so! And if you're reading this story post-publication I hope you'll still take the time to leave a review or two (no matter how far in the future it may be) if you enjoyed it since this truly was a labor of love. It would really mean a lot to me! :)**

 **I've really, _really_ enjoyed imagining and filling in the blanks for and fleshing out these characters who have only 6 minutes and 45 seconds of screen time (and that's rounding up a bit) and I hope you all feel I did them (and everyone else) justice.**

 **Much love and many thanks! ~ Trilliumwoods**


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